


Christmas One Shots

by LadyWallace



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, All Seasons, Christmas Fluff, Christmas stories, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Lots of Other Characters - Freeform, No Slash, Team Free Will, basically a lot of fluff, case fics, holiday fluff, one shots, short story collection, some bittersweetness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-11 16:26:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 51,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12939150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyWallace/pseuds/LadyWallace
Summary: This is a collection of the Christmas one shot request fics I have write every year for the people who request them. All seasons and characters.





	1. Christmas Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a human!Cas AU where he gets sick for Christmas and Sam and Dean take care of him.

"Gaa-choo!"

Dean heard the sneeze from the other room as he was cleaning up the kitchen in preparation for cooking the—spectacular, he was assuring everyone—Christmas dinner. It was Christmas Eve tomorrow and he had just been out shopping for what he would need. He was determined to make this Christmas a good one, now that they had the bunker to call home and he and Sam and Cas were all in a major need of a break after everything that had happened recently. Besides, it was Cas' first Christmas being human so he wanted to make sure he experienced it better than he and Sam had as kids, with all the decorations and the turkey dinner—which Dean was totally not going to mess up, by the way. Sammy needed to have more confidence in his culinary skills.

"Dean."

The hunter looked up from sorting through a cupboard, looking for the right sized pan to cook the turkey in, to find Cas standing in the kitchen still in his pajamas and robe, looking like he hadn't slept all night.

"Dude, you look terrible, what's wrong?" Dean asked, frowning as he stood up.

Cas sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, leaving a mark that made Dean cringe in disgust. "My nose is leaking and my head aches and I feel very cold and uncomfortable."

Dean's heart sank at the words. "Sounds like you caught a cold, buddy. There's always stuff going around this time of year and your newly human immune system is probably no better than a baby's."

"How do I cure it?" Cas asked before letting out another wet sneeze that he only barely covered with his arm. Dean wasn't exactly a germiphobe, but in his kitchen… He stepped forward and grabbed Cas by the arm, steering him out of the kitchen and back to the bedrooms.

"You need to go back to bed first. Get some rest. I'll find you some medicine and we'll take your temperature."

Cas went willingly and allowed himself to be tucked back into bed, letting out a harsh sneeze in Dean's face in the process. He closed his eyes in a longsuffering manner.

"Okay, rule number one, cover your mouth when you sneeze," Dean said, tiredly wiping his face off.

"Sorry, Dean," Cas said, already starting to sound stuffed up.

"That's okay, you're still new to this, I know," Dean sighed and went down the hall to the bathroom, grabbing a thermometer and a bottle of cold medicine they kept for emergencies.

Sam walked by the door on his way to shower and frowned, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Hey Dean, you feeling all right?"

"Yeah, it looks like Cas caught a cold though," Dean told him. "You feeling okay?"

Sam nodded, making a sympathetic face. "I thought he was looking a little tired yesterday."

"Too bad he had to get sick over Christmas," Dean said.

Sam smiled sympathetically, knowing how much Dean had wanted to have a nice holiday that year for the ex-angel. "Don't worry, we'll still be able to make a good day of it. We'll take care of Cas and have him back on his feet by Christmas morning."

Dean nodded in agreement and then went to grab a glass of orange juice before he returned to the ex-angel who was curled in the bed, miserably breathing through his mouth.

"Here, drink this," Dean told him, handing him the orange juice. "It's good for colds."

Cas took it gratefully and drained the glass in only a few seconds, gasping for breath afterwards, his nose clogged. "I can' breade bery well, Dean," he said, or tried to say, rather, his nose so stuffed his words came out garbled. He frowned at the sound of his voice and Dean fought a grin, grabbing a box of tissues from the desk in the corner and handing it to Cas.

"Blow your nose, it will help."

Cas took a tissue and cautiously blew his nose into it, awkwardly at first, then tried again with better luck. He sighed, able to breathe a little better and turned back to Dean with a tired smile. "Thanks."

"Now time for your temperature," Dean said, taking the thermometer and putting it into Cas' mouth. They waited for it to beep and when they did, Dean found that he did indeed have a fever. "101," he told the ex-angel.

"Is that bad?" Cas asked.

"Not too bad," Dean assured him. 'Just enough to be uncomfortable." He measured out the medicine and handed the tiny cup to Cas. "Take this and it should help take the edge off of the fever."

Cas drank it and pulled a face. "It is not a very good flavor."

"No," Dean chuckled. "I'll get you some more juice. You just try to rest, sleep in the best thing for it."

Cas slid further into the bed with a small grateful smile on his lips. "Thank you for taking care of me Dean. I have no idea what to do, I'm afraid. I feel so helpless."

"Hey," Dean told him gruffly. "You're not helpless, you just need to get used to this stuff. Just let Sam and me take care of you for a while, okay?"

"'kay," Cas mumbled, already almost asleep.

Dean pulled another blanket over him before he went back to organizing stuff in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, Cas only got worse as the day went on and early the next morning, he woke Dean and Sam up by vomiting. Dean was the first one there and hurried to Cas' side, grabbing him around the middle before he took a face plant into the toilet.

"Easy, buddy," he said gently.

"This is very unpleasant, Dean," the ex-angel said tiredly, leaning against the hunter, having no strength left.

"Yeah, I know, this is just something you're going to have to get used to as a human," he said as Sam came into the room then, casting a sympathetic look at their friend.

"Not very glamorous, is it?" he asked wryly as he stepped past Dean and Cas, going to the sink for a cup of water and a washcloth. He told Cas to rinse his mouth, then handed Dean the washcloth. He wiped Cas' face with it but had to stop as the sick man scrambled for the toilet again and proceeded to throw up once more.

"Aw, Cas," Dean said with a sigh as he patted the ex-angel's back as the other man crouched on the bathroom floor, trembling. "I hope you don't have a stomach bug now too."

"There's bugs inside of me?" Cas asked, alarmed.

"No, Cas, that's just what we call a sickness," Sam told him with a chuckle.

"I think it's just the fever," Dean said after they had gotten Cas cleaned up and put back into bed and checked his temperature again. "It's at 103.5 now. We need to cool him off."

"But I'm already, c-cold," Cas protested, shivering as they stripped off the robe and sweat-soaked henley he had been wearing and changed them for a t-shirt and light blanket. Cas groaned as Dean wet some cloths to put over his forehead and squirmed but Sam rubbed his shoulder comfortingly.

"You're going to feel cold, but you're actually burning up. We need to get the fever to break."

It was a long night of Sam and Dean taking turns to watch over Cas. He threw up one more time, but thankfully seemed to be done after that so they could rule out stomach flu. His fever continued through the next morning, stubborn and refusing to break. They moved him out to the couch so he could watch Christmas movies on TV and they would be able to better hear him if he needed anything.

Most of the day, Dean sat at his feet and watched the movies with him, talking about all his favorites, and explaining things when Cas asked about them. Though most of the time, the ex-angel dozed, between sneezes and doses of medicine and bouts of a wet cough that had cropped up that morning. At least his fever finally broke that afternoon, taking away a little of the discomfort.

The Winchesters packed him back into his room and allowed him to sleep in peace and quiet.

"Well looks like he's not going to be getting much celebration in this year," Dean said as he and Sam shared some eggnog in the study. "Though, a cup of this eggnog might put him back on his feet. This stuff could kill any germ."

Sam snorted good-naturedly from across the table. "We'll still make sure he has a good day. Now that his fever's broken, he should start to feel better. He'll probably be well enough to get out of bed tomorrow, and hopefully eat some of your Christmas dinner. If you don't burn the bunker down in the process, that is."

"Have a little faith, Sammy," Dean said with a glare, then put his cup down, standing up. "But I have an idea."

With Sam's help, he gabbed some of the decorations they had bought and quietly made their way to Cas' room. The ex-angel was still sound asleep, snoring gently from his congestion, and they quickly strung some lights and tinsel around the room, casting a warm glow with the colored lights, and Dean finished it off by hanging a stocking on the bedpost.

"There, that looks good," he said with a grin, as he and Sam left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. "Now you had better get off to bed, Sammy or Santa won't come."

Sam gave him the bitchface, but he yawned despite himself, tired. "Whatever, Dean. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Sammy," Dean said and then when he was sure Sam was in his room, he set out presents and filled stockings and then he too went off to bed, leaving his door open in case Cas needed him.

The next morning, early, Dean got up and tiptoed out to the kitchen to make coffee when he was accosted by his little brother, already there with two mugs in his hands.

"Merry Christmas, Dean!" he cried, shoving a hot cup into Dean's sleepy hands.

After he got over his shock, Dean grinned, slinging an arm over Sam's shoulders. "Come on, let's go wake Cas up."

"Shouldn't we let him sleep?" Sam protested.

"Nah, man, it's Christmas," Dean told him. "He can sleep later, after he opens his stocking."

They went to the room where the ex-angel was still sleeping deeply, curled under his blanket. Dean reached out and gently shook his shoulder. Cas murmured something and stirred, his eyes flicking open, confused by the colored lights and looking up into Dean and Sam's grinning faces.

"Merry Christmas, Cas!" they said.

"Oh, is it Christmas already?" he asked, slightly confused and tired, rubbing his eyes as he tried to sit up. Dean hurried to help him as Sam put pillows behind his back.

"Yup, you slept most of yesterday. How are you feeling?"

Cas took a moment to take stock of his body and shrugged. "Better, I think."

"Great!" Dean said and plopped a full stocking into his lap. "This is yours, we're gonna open them."

"Is that…tradition?" Cas asked.

"Yup," Dean told him and handed one to Sam too who exchanged it with one for Dean who grinned like a kid. "Alright, let's get to it!"

They all sat on Cas' bed and opened their gifts, laughing as they saw what they had gotten each other. And afterwards, they took the day to relax and just enjoy each other's company, and Dean worked on making a holiday meal that turned out very well after all and didn't burn down the bunker, as Sam had feared. All in all, Castiel decided it was a good first Christmas with the Winchesters even if he had to get sick for it. He certainly wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.

 


	2. Cookies and Carols

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Dean explain Christmas traditions to Castiel.

"Why exactly are we doing this again, Sam?" Castiel asked as he tramped through the woods outside the bunker with the younger Winchester; both were holding an axe and Cas was worried that he was going to trip in the deep snow and fall on the blade. These were things he worried about now as a human that he really never thought about as an angel.

Sam huffed patiently. "It's a tradition, Cas, having a Christmas tree. Dean wanted to put one up in the bunker this year so we have to go cut one."

"Yes, I understand that," Cas said, stumbling again in the snow and trying to keep up with Sam's long stride. "What I don't understand is how the pagan tradition of the Yule log ended up being a part of a largely Christian holiday."

Sam snorted a laugh. "Well, I think you mostly have Queen Victoria to thank for that. She brought the German tradition of the Christmas tree to the English and then the Americans copied it too and we seemed to have kept it since."

"It is very strange how things have changed over the years," Castiel said, shaking his head. "There are things I do understand, like the carols—singing has always been part of holidays and commemorations—but other things like Black Friday…is it not a bit selfish? Just because gifts were brought to the baby Jesus doesn't mean everyone needs them on Christmas, surely? And actually, Jesus wasn't born this time of year at all, that is another misconception."

Sam laughed, remembering Dean dragging the ex-angel out on Black Friday to buy a new TV and the rather traumatic experience Cas had gone through when he was nearly trampled and run over by a soccer mom with a cart. "Yeah, I know, Cas. But Christmas isn't just about that stuff either. It's about family and just taking a day to spend time together and forget your other problems. Peace and goodwill and all that."

Castiel smiled at that. "That I do understand. Taking time off to enjoy with family is always a good thing."

Sam nodded, just glad he had his brother and Cas to share such moments with. He knew how much it meant to Dean to try and make up for the Christmases that had been less than enjoyable in their past, and he was willing to do whatever Dean wanted to make sure that happened—even if it meant being the one to go out and cut the tree down in the cold, biting wind, and weather that looked like it was threatening snow.

"This looks like a good one," he said, finally finding a tree that was the right size and fluffiness. He and Castiel cut it down and then dragged it back to the bunker where they found Dean sitting among a tangled pile of lights, cursing as he tried to sort them out.

"You're not done?" Sam asked with a smirk as he and Cas positioned the tree in a corner, getting it ready for the decorating.

"Bite me," Dean snapped, nearly strangling himself with one of the strands that had managed to wrap itself around his neck. "I found all this stuff in one of the storage rooms. Who knew the Men of Letters decorated for Christmas? I just hope none of these are cursed or anything. They already seem to be in a Gordian Knot."

"I guess we'll find out," Sam said as he and Cas knelt on the floor to help untangle Dean from the mess he had made of the lights, likely doing more damage than there was originally.

"I hope these work for all this trouble," the elder Winchester grumbled as he looped another untangled strand around Cas' outstretched hands.

"This decorating seems more trouble than it's worth," the ex-angel said. "People used to decorate with bows of holly as they said in that song."

"Yeah, well, this is how we do it now. More lights, less fa-la-la," Dean told him as he triumphantly held up the end of the plug. "Finally! Let's plug 'er in and see if they work, they we can start on the tree."

They had to replace several of the bulbs, but most of them still worked, thankfully so they looped them around the tree. Sam put on a Christmas record and the joyful sounds of holiday tunes echoed around the bunker as they hauled more boxes of decorations out of the storage room, fining one with tree ornaments.

"Dean why are there so many references to mistletoe in Christmas songs?" Cas asked.

Dean grinned. "Because you're supposed to hang it in doorways and stuff and wait to catch someone under it, because you get to kiss 'em then. If we had any women around, I'd be hanging it all over the place."

"Why is that a tradition?" the ex-angel asked with a frown. "Mistletoe is not romantic, it is a parasitic plant that grows in trees. The ancient Celts did this it sacred, though, I suppose, and in ancient Britain it was customary to form agreements and peace treaties underneath it. Nothing remotely romantic though."

"Yeah, get the wrong girl and you're going to start a war," Sam said with a grin at Dean.

"Do not ever mention Laura Dower and her unexpected boyfriend to me again, Sam," Dean snapped.

Sam continued to grin as he turned back to the box of ornaments, as they continued to sort through them. As Cas dug through one, he came up with a golden angel, frowning.

"What is this?"

Dean grinned. "Angels are supposed to go on top of trees, don't you know?"

"I don't understand, I have never sat on top of a tree, even when I was an angel," Cas said, holding the small figure in his hands.

"Don't really know why, it's just tradition. Some people put a star on top of it." Dean shrugged.

"Like the star that guided the three wise men," Sam offered.

Cas nodded slowly, setting the angel aside. "I still find it all so strange."

"Well, I hope you at least like the art of making Christmas cookies because we have a lot of them to make," Dean told him as he placed some red balls onto the branches of the tree. "Gingerbread men, sugar cookies with colored icing, peppermint cookies, any other kind of cookie we want…"

"Dude, there's only three of us," Sam protested.

"Yeah, so?" Dean glared at him.

Sam rolled his eyes, but smiled as Cas looked interested in this.

"Well, I do like cookies, but I don't really see the correlation with Christmas and making them."

"Mainly it's just because people like to use holidays as an excuse to stuff their face. I mean, pretty much every holiday has something to do with food," Dean said. "I don't see that as a bad thing."

"Can we make cookies now, then?" Castiel asked as he settled another ball on the tree.

"Sure, why not? We can finish decorating while they're baking," Dean said, and they hurried to the kitchen where they spent the rest of the afternoon making cookies that wouldn't have won any awards but tasted good enough to give them all stomach aches from the amount they ate. Castiel might not have completely understood the correlation of Christmas and cookies, but he wasn't going to protest either. He had enjoyed making and eating them.

And he did enjoy the family aspect of the holiday, especially now that he knew he really had a family with the Winchesters.

Especially when he woke up Christmas morning and saw that the angel they had put on the tree had been given a trench coat and a blue tie. He smiled, finally beginning to feel like he really was at home.


	3. Looking After You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Teen!Chester fic where Sam is sick at Christmas and Dean takes care of him making sure he still has a nice Christmas

It was Christmas Eve and Sammy was sick.

John had been gone for over two weeks on a hunt and their funds were already running low and now Sam had gotten a flu or something and Dean was just about ready to go frantic with cabin fever being cooped up in the motel room with a sick little brother who had been looking forward to a holiday with the three of them. But as usual, John was a no-show and Dean was left to pick up the pieces.

Yeah, Sam had pretty much given up on the idea of having family holidays the year he had figured out what their dad really did for a living, but even now at twelve, Sam still tried to pretend they could have a little normal, and Dean, even though he knew it was an impossibility in their lives, wanted that for Sam so he tried as best as he could to make it happen. And now he couldn't even get his dad to come home for Christmas; not even call. He wished John had taken them to Bobby's house like their surrogate uncle had suggested, but John had said it was too far a haul when he had a job on the other side of the country.

So they were stuck here and Sammy was sick and his disappointment was probably only making it worse. Dean had spent the last two days nursing his fever and making sure he was comfortable and warm—it was not warm in the motel room at all, which was probably another reason Sam had gotten sick. Dean had tried to tell the manager that their space heater was on the fritz, but no one had ever looked into it, probably not thinking that Dean was going to be able to pay for the room another week once the pre-payment John had already made went up in four days—and they would be right. Hopefully John was back by then, but Dean wasn't holding his breath. He would have been out hustling pool at the bar across the street already if it hadn't been for Sammy.

Dean was mixing up a can of chicken and stars when Sam woke groggily, his fever still higher than Dean wanted it to be. "What time is it?" he asked.

Dean looked over at him. "About six pm. You slept pretty much all day, dude."

"Did Dad call?" Sam asked, rubbing his eyes and shivering as he huddled on the bed, pulling the blankets over him.

Dean gnawed his lip. "No. I tried calling him earlier, left a message. He'll get it eventually."

"Whatever," Sam said tiredly, slumping back to the bed.

"Hey, you need to eat something, don't go back to sleep yet," Dean told him, trying to stay upbeat. "Soups almost done, and I bet there's some sort of Christmas special on TV that we can watch."

"Okay," Sam said tiredly.

Dean crossed the room to prop him up, adding pillows from the other bed too. Sam seemed too weak to sit on his own. Dean knew it was just a result of the fever, but it still worried him. He knew Sammy hadn't had enough nutritious food lately, and hardly enough of what they had been eating. The soup would be good, though and hopefully would help. At least they still had orange juice too. For now.

"Here you go, kiddo," Dean said, putting a TV tray into Sam's lap with the bowl of soup on it. "Eat all of that, if you can. You need to keep your strength up."

Sam sighed, but he picked up the spoon and started to eat slowly, as Dean turned on the TV and found a Christmas movie, grabbing his own bowl and sitting beside Sam on the bed.

"Shouldn't sit so close," Sam told him. "You could get sick too."

Dean snorted. "If I was going to get sick, I would have by now. This one's all you, Sammy."

"It's Sam," the younger boy replied.

Dean fought against the smile as he heard a little life come back into Sam's voice. "Not when you're sick and I have to tuck you in and bathe your brow, Sammy."

Sam shot a half-hearted glare at him. "Jerk."

"Bitch," Dean replied and continued eating, watching out of the corner of his eye to make sure Sam was doing the same. He had managed almost all of the bowl before he stopped.

"I can't eat any more, Dean," he said.

Dean let him off. "That's okay, Sam, you did a good job."

"Bite me," Sam snorted as he turned back to the TV.

Dean cleaned up the dishes and then measured out some more of the cold medicine he had been giving Sam. The younger brother made a face as he saw it, but drank it all the same then allowed Dean to take his temperature, which had thankfully gone down a little bit. Finally. Maybe Sammy was on the road to recovery after all.

"I'm cold, Dean," Sam said with a sigh, as he continued to shiver on the bed, this having nothing to do with the fever.

Dean bit his lip and grabbed the comforter from the other bed, wrapping it around Sam's shoulders. He didn't care if he froze, as long as Sammy was warm.

Sam's shivers finally stopped and he dozed off during the second movie they watched and Dean started looking at the phone more and more, waiting for the call he knew wouldn't come. Finally, as he saw Sam was deeply asleep, he got up and wrote a quick note, then grabbed his coat and left the hotel room, heading out into the cold. It had snowed earlier, and looked like it was going to again. He hoped it wasn't too late to go to the super market on Christmas Eve, but he saw it was open when he got there and breathed a sigh of relief. He could at least try to make Christmas a little special for Sammy, even if he was sick.

He checked his funds, seeing there wasn't much there at all, but he was going to make due no matter what. He grabbed a basket and looked around heading toward the bakery section. There wasn't much left, but there was one pumpkin pie and he grabbed it eagerly, knowing it was one of Sammy's favorites. Then he picked up some pre-packaged sliced ham and instant mashed potatoes for their Christmas dinner. He still had a bit of money left and looked around for something to get Sam.

Finally, he spotted some soft fleece blankets and picked one up, hoping it might keep Sam warmer than the ratty motel ones. He used the very last of his money to pick up pancake mix and chocolate chips for their breakfast, and then went to check out. He would get more money in a couple days hustling pool, if Dad hadn't come back by then.

Sam was still asleep when he got back and he used that opportunity to decorate a little. He had secretly clipped some branches from the tree in the motel lobby and stuck them into a pot of soil in a strange, makeshift little tree, then decorated it with some ornaments and tinsel he had also liberated from the lobby (it was the back of the tree, no one would know until they took it down). Then he made newspaper snowflakes to hang around the room. Then he wrapped the blanket with more newspaper and set it on the table with the pie.

He glanced hopefully at the phone one more time, before he decided it was time to go to bed, exhaustion stealing over him. Now that Sam seemed to finally be sleeping peacefully for the first time in the last couple days, he was going to enjoy a good night's sleep too. But he still climbed into Sam's bed to make sure he didn't sleep through anything his little brother needed. Besides, the kid had all the blankets.

The next morning, Sam woke to the smell of pancakes and chocolate. It actually smelled really good and he opened his eyes, looking over at Dean's grinning face as he flipped pancakes at the stove.

"Rise and shine, Sammy! Merry Christmas!"

Sam looked around, seeing the snowflakes and the pitiful tree and smiled slightly. "Dean, where did you get all this stuff?"

"Oh, uh, most of it I took from the lobby. But I made a run to the store last night when you were sleeping and got stuff for Christmas dinner. Look, pie!"

Sam carefully slid out of the bed, arms wrapped around himself from the sudden cold as he went to sit at the kitchen table.

"And look, Santa came," Dean said, motioning to the poorly wrapped present on the table as he put a couple pancakes onto a plate for Sam.

Sam smiled. "Dean, you didn't have to…"

"Hush, don't make this a chick flick moment, Sammy," Dean told him, putting the plate in front of him and feeling his forehead before Sam shoved his hand away.

"I'm making this a chick flick moment?" Sam replied sarcastically.

"Your fever's gone," Dean said, pleased. He grabbed more pancakes for himself and sat down. "Come on, open your present."

Sam grabbed it and tore off the paper, smiling as he saw the blanket. "Thanks Dean, this is really great." He unrolled it and wrapped it around himself.

"Can't have you getting sick again, and this place is a freaking tomb," Dean said, shrugging as he ate his pancakes, but he was secretly pleased. "Look, Sammy, I'm sorry we didn't get to spend Christmas with Dad and Uncle Bobby this year like you wanted to."

"It's not your fault, Dean," Sam told him. "Besides, it's all right. We have pie and everything, right? And… thanks for taking care of me."

"That's my job, Sammy," Dean told him quietly, then cut the sober attitude and grinned. "And who says we can't have pie for breakfast too? What do you say?"

"Sounds good," Sam grinned.

It may not have been the best Christmas ever, but as long as he had his brother with him, Sam knew it would never be that bad after all.


	4. A Merry Little Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is an AU where Jess never died and Sam is married to her and they have two kids. Dean goes to visit them for Christmas

Dean sighed as he tapped his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel. Only twenty more miles to Palo Alto and he was crawling through rush hour traffic. All he wanted was to get to Sammy's house and have the chance to meet his new niece. He hadn't gotten back to California for nearly six months now, between hunts and everything, so he hadn't gotten to meet Sam and Jess' new daughter, Emily. Ian, their four-year-old son, had been champing at the bit for Uncle Dean to get there, and was probably driving his mom and dad crazy. Dean smiled at that thought. "This traffic is driving me crazy too," he muttered to himself.

Finally though, he made it through and got into Palo Alto in the late afternoon. At least he would still be able to get there for dinner. He only wished he could have come earlier than Christmas Eve, but a werewolf hunt in Colorado had run longer than expected. He had had time to do a little shopping on the way there, however, and planned on staying until after New Year's.

He pulled up to the cozy little house and he always felt a wave of happiness wash over him as he saw it with its front lawn and warmly lit windows—a real home. It was everything he had ever wished for Sam; his little brother was finally happy, which in turn, made Dean happy, though he would never admit that out loud because that was too close to a chick flick moment.

He had only barely parked the Impala outside the house when the door flew open and Ian ran out, grinning happily and shouting.

"Uncle Dean!" he called.

"Hey, buddy!" Dean cried with a laugh as he got out of the car and swept the little boy into his arms, spinning him around.

"He's been waiting by the door all day."

Dean looked up to see his little brother grinning at him. "Sammy," he said.

"Hey Dean," Sam replied and stepped forward to hug his brother, Ian squished between them.

"You look good, Sam, though it looks like you packed on a few pounds." Dean grinned and teasingly poked Sam in the stomach, making him slap his hand away.

"You're one to talk," Sam retorted.

"I'm fighting fit," Dean scoffed and turned back to Ian. "Why don't you help me bring my stuff inside? There might be something for you."

"Yes, yes!" Ian cried and scrambled out of Dean's arms as he opened the trunk and pulled out a box of presents.

"Careful, its kinda heavy!" he said as Ian grabbed the box and headed inside with it. Dean grabbed his duffle bag and closed up the trunk, turning back to Sam and slinging an arm around his shoulders as they headed back inside. "So, how is my little niece?"

"See for yourself," Sam said, closing the door behind them and Dean turned to see Jessica standing nearby, holding a bundle of pink blankets in her arms.

"Hi, Dean," Jess said with a smile. "How was your trip?"

"Long, but I'm here now," Dean said and kissed her cheek before looking down at the bundle in her arms. "Couldn't miss getting to see my new niece."

"Would you like to hold her?" Jess asked and put her into Dean's arms before he could say yes or no. He couldn't help a smile as the tiny bundle shifted and gave a small sound of protest at being disturbed and he looked down at her delicate features, stroking her tiny cheek with a finger.

"Hey there, Emily, it's your Uncle Dean," he said before turning back to Jess. "She sure is pretty. Definitely doesn't take after her dad."

"Oh shut up," Sam said good-naturedly, putting an arm around Jess and grinning proudly as his brother smiled down at his daughter.

Ian came back from putting the presents under the Christmas tree and glommed onto Dean's leg. "I'm a big brother now, just like you, Uncle Dean," the boy said proudly.

"You are," Dean said with a proud smile. "I'll have to teach you all the tricks of the trade. You'll especially have your work cut out for you with a little sister. Gotta make sure the boys treat her well."

"I will, I take good care of her!" Ian said jumping up and down before running to Jess. "Can I show Uncle Dean how I feed Em her bottle, Mommy?"

"Sure, Ian, she does need to eat. Go sit on the couch."

Dean followed Ian into the family room and sat beside him on the couch, handing the boy's little sister over to him. Emily's eyes opened, hazel like her daddy's, and looked up at Ian and reached out a tiny hand toward his face. Dean smiled.

"Look at that, she already trusts you."

"Of course she does," Ian said matter-of-factly as he took the bottle Jess brought to him and began to feed his little sister. That brought back memories for Dean. Memories of feeding Sammy in the backseat of the Impala while John drove, getting up and taking care of him during the night when their dad had had a long hunt and needed rest. Dean swallowed hard, his throat suddenly tight, but with relief and thankfulness. He was so glad that Ian and Emily wouldn't have to go through the same thing he and Sammy had. He looked up and saw Sam starting back at him with a small worried crease between his brows.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

Dean smiled genuinely, the gesture instantly making his brother relax. "Yeah, a little tired. But not so much I can't help put cookies under the tree for Santa and read Ian a bedtime story."

Ian perked up. "You have to read The Night Before Christmas, Uncle Dean!"

"Whatever you want, kiddo," Dean told him.

Jessica came back into the room then. "Well, right now, dinner's ready. I'm going to go put Emily down and then we can eat. Would you set the table, Ian?"

"You can sit next to me, Uncle Dean!" Ian said as he ran off.

Dean chuckled and turned to Sam. "How have you been, little brother?"

Sam nodded with a smile. "I've been good. We've all been good. What about you?"

Dean shrugged. "Aw, you know, the usual. Wish I could get out here more often."

"Well, I actually was going to talk to you about that," Sam began, but was interrupted by Ian coming back into the room.

"I set the table, Mommy said to come into the kitchen!"

Sam motioned to the direction of the dining room. "We can talk later, shall we?"

"Yeah, I'm starving," Dean said and allowed himself to be pulled into the other room by his nephew.

After dinner was done, Dean helped Ian pick cookies for Santa and put them on a plate with a glass of milk.

"And a carrot for the reindeers," Ian said, adding a carrot to the plate.

"Here, why don't you let me grab the milk, buddy," Dean said as he foresaw a disaster approaching with the precariously balanced glass of milk and grabbed it off the plate as Ian carried it to the fireplace and set it down on the hearth. Then he sat and grabbed a present from under the tree.

"We got you presents too, Uncle Dean; I picked this one out, wanna rattle it?"

Dean grinned and took the box, shaking it slightly. "Hm, I have no idea what that could be. I bet it's awesome if you picked it out, though."

Ian grinned and sorted through the ones Dean had brought, shaking them and trying to guess what they were before Jessica came in and told him it was time for bed.

"Aw, but I wanna rattle my presents more," Ian said.

Dean stood and picked him up, settling him on his hip. "Yeah, but if you don't go to bed soon, Santa won't come. Besides, we were going to read a story…unless you don't want to read…"

"Yes, yes, read to me, Uncle Dean!" Ian said bouncing in his arms.

"Okay, then go brush your teeth," Dean set him down and headed to the boy's room, finding the book already off the shelf and set on the bed. When Ian came back he leapt onto the bed, and Dean sat against the pillows as the boy snuggled against his side, his head resting on Dean's shoulder.

"Okay, let's get to it," Dean said, putting an arm around Ian. "''Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...'"

By the time he was done reading, Ian was asleep, dreaming of sugarplums. Dean eased himself from the bed, and pulled a blanket over the boy before tip-toeing out and closing the door behind him.

He went back out to the family room where Sam was stoking a fire in the grate. He turned with a smile as Dean entered.

"He asleep?"

"Went right out," Dean told him with a chuckle.

"How about some eggnog?" Sam asked, pointing to a bowl on a table beside the tree.

"Your nog?" Dean raised an eyebrow as Sam shrugged. "You wanna kill me, kiddo?"

Sam laughed and poured some into two cups and pressed one into his brother's hands. "Just take it, dude. You know you love it."

"Yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself, Samantha." Dean hid a smirk as he took a sip and—yup just like he remembered.

"So anyway," Sam said, shifting a bit awkwardly in the way Dean knew meant that he was about to say something he wasn't sure Dean would like. "About what I was saying earlier…"

"Yeah, you got me curious," Dean said, turning from the fire a minute to cast a sideways glance at his brother. "Something up with you?"

"No, nothing like that," Sam quickly reassured. "It's a good thing, at least, I hope it is, but it's really for you to decide, after all."

"Sammy, spit it out," Dean told him.

Sam huffed a laugh. "Okay, so this friend of Jess's told me the other day that he was planning on renting out his apartment. It's in a complex just down the road and it's a nice place, decent price, I thought…maybe you would be interested."

"Me?" Dean asked, genuinely surprised.

"Well, yeah," Sam said, shifting again. "I mean, you don't have to stay there all the time, and I'm not asking you to give up hunting, it's just, I thought it would be nice for you to have your own place, I know it's what you've always really wanted—don't give me that look! And besides, Ian would love to have you around more. And I'd like both him and Em to grow up around their Uncle."

"You seem to have this all thought out," Dean said, going over to pour more eggnog.

"Well, I've done a lot of thinking about it," Sam said. "Like, the fact that I think you would really enjoy having your own place to crash in when you needed. And…well…I kinda miss my big brother." He rolled his eyes as Dean snorted a laugh. "I just thought you might consider it."

"Aw, Sammy, you know I can't help it when you look at me with the puppy eyes," Dean said.

"I am not looking at you with the puppy eyes," Sam protested.

"Oh, yes you are, and you know it too," Dean said with a chuckle, taking a swig of the eggnog and wincing. "But honestly? I really like the idea. It might take a little thought, but I'm glad you brought it up to me. What do you say we go see it sometime next week?"

"Sure, that would be great," Sam said, grinning genuinely.

"And, hey, I miss my little brother too," Dean said. "Even if it is a lot quieter on hunts without you. Not to mention less gassy in the car."

"Oh, come on, dude, you know you're just as bad."

"Oh, yeah, and you were always the one who liked to pass the blame with the gas."

"At least I never snored."

"Oh come on, you know that isn't true! And I'm definitely going to ask Jess the truth about that one."

"All right, fine, I concede," Sam said and huffed a laugh before he turned to his brother and raised his glass. "Merry Christmas, jerk."

Dean smiled back and touched glasses. "Merry Christmas, bitch."

Then they stood in companionable silence watching the fire blaze as snow started to fall outside.


	5. Jingle All the Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically Santa Claus is killed during the Apocalypse mess and so the boys have to take over for him.

It was Christmas Eve. Sam and Dean weren't planning anything spectacular, but they were definitely counting on taking the night off to relax, kick back, and watch some TV in their motel room—preferably with some liquor and some pie. Definitely far from being outside in the snow and cold weather.

Of course, that all changed with a phone call.

Dean, groaning, but seeing it was Cas, knew he should probably answer it. "What?"

"Dean, something horrible has happened. Where are you and Sam, I need your help."

Dean sat up straight. "What's up, Cas?"

"It's best if I explain it in person."

"All right," Dean replied worriedly then gave the angel their address before he hung up.

Sam looked over at him. "What was that?"

"I don't know, it's always hard to tell with Cas if it's something really bad or just…"

Cas appeared in the room then, in front of the two brothers.

"I'm afraid it is actually very bad, Dean," the angel said. "Santa Claus has been murdered."

Sam and Dean just stared at him for a couple seconds before Dean burst out laughing, as the angel looked on with a very unamused frown.

"This isn't funny, Dean."

"Dude, we don't investigate cases where mall Santas get iced. Most of them have gotten on the wrong side of bad people who don't have any Christmas spirit whatsoever."

"This is not some random man in costume, Dean," Castiel said, stepping forward appealingly. "This is the real Santa Claus, and he's been murdered."

~~~~~~~~

"I'm sorry, one more time for the record," Dean said, already filling his glass up with whisky.

Castiel gave him an annoyed look. "I don't see why this is so hard to wrap your head around, Dean. Someone has been murdered."

"I think what Dean is having trouble wrapping his head around is who you said was murdered," Sam offered, trying to hide his own surprise and amusement.

"I…said it was Santa Claus, was I not clear enough?" Castiel asked. "I thought that was still the preferred terminology of the century…"

"No, you were perfectly clear on that," Dean said. "But dude, really? You expect us to not only believe that there is an actual Santa Claus, but that he just got iced?"

"Well, he was stabbed actually," Castiel said slowly, "but yes, he is real, you know. How could you not know that?"

Dean and Sam shared a look. "Well, okay," Sam finally said as Dean sighed and shook his head. "So, if Santa is real, what is he?"

"A lesser hearth god of sorts, it's rather hard to explain; in fact, I'm not entirely sure of the specifics myself," Castiel said. "But with everything going on between all the factions due to the apocalypse, he must have gotten on the wrong side of someone and therefor was murdered."

"Okay, so someone ganked St. Nick, what exactly are we supposed to do about it?" Dean asked.

"Well, a new Santa will be inaugurated—that's how it goes, you know. But this was such short notice that they haven't gotten one set up, and so Santa's duties will be left undone tonight if no one steps up to do them."

"Okay," Dean said, taking a drink.

"Dean," Castiel urged, frowning. "We must do them ourselves."

Dean sputtered, choking so that Sam had to whack him on the back. "Um, what?" Dean asked. "Dude, are you insane? We can't deliver gifts to this city let alone the whole world in one night! And this is so utterly ridiculous I can't even believe I'm talking about it."

"Dean, I need your help," Castiel said. "Think of the children."

"Dude!"

Castiel sighed. "Look, I can probably get some cupids to help us with the international deliveries. But we'll have to do the US."

"Deliver all the presents?" Sam asked. "But how?"

"Well, I can fly us where we need to go. We'll go to each street and deliver all the gifts systematically, but we don't have much time. The Eastern Seaboard is already approaching nine pm; we have likely less than ten hours before children will be waking up. I believe it is tradition for them to rise early."

"I don't know man, this sounds crazy," Dean protested. "This isn't some prank is it?"

"I'm not Gabriel," Castiel protested indignantly. "Please, Dean, Sam, I need your help. I can't do this alone. I'm not good with people in general and children…"

"Of course we'll help, Cas," Sam said before Dean could protest, elbowing his older brother as he opened his mouth to talk. "What do we do first?"

Castiel looked relieved. "First we need to go to Santa's sleigh and pick up the gifts."

"Oh, this just gets better and better," Dean muttered to himself as he and Sam shrugged into their coats, scarves and gloves. "Okay, let's get this over with. Freaking apocalypse."

A few seconds later they were standing in the middle of an open field where a sleigh that looked right out of a Christmas card had crash-landed. There were empty leads where assumedly, reindeer had once been, and slumped over the side was the jolly man himself, bleeding down the side of the sleigh from a stab wound in his chest.

Dean gulped. "Well, there you go, Sammy, merry Christmas. Is that your whole childhood ruined callously in one night?"

Sam swallowed hard, but stepped forward. "Wow, I guess he really is real…or was."

"Ya think?" Dean snorted.

"Come, we don't have much time," Castiel said, climbing up into the sleigh and pulling bags from the back, throwing them down to the brothers. He then turned to the body and began divesting it of its red velvet coat.

"Woah, Cas, what are you doing?" Dean asked, holding up a hand.

"One of us must wear it," Castiel said. "It's supposed to aid in the swift delivery of the gifts."

Dean waved him off as he handed it to him. "No way, dude, I am not wearing dead Santa's coat." He shivered. "Makes me feel all kinds of dirty."

"Yeah, I'm with Dean," Sam said quickly. "It's just…not right."

Castiel looked like he was going to protest, but then, sighed. "Very well, then." He slipped out of his trench coat and put the red coat on, quickly repairing the damage and thankfully getting rid of the bloodstains. "But you should wear these." He tossed them a couple Santa hats.

"Oh hell no," Dean shook his head, holding his by the pom-pom. "We don't even know where these have been."

"Dean," Sam said through his teeth.

"Okay, but you put yours on first," Dean said and smirked at Sam's bitchface as he put the hat on his head. Dean snorted a laugh and reluctantly followed suit, making Sam grin back.

"We are such a couple of dweebs," Dean sighed as he bent to pick up the bag. "Okay, Cas, where too…"

A second later, they were standing in a sub division somewhere in Unknown, Suburbia, with all the houses covered in Christmas lights in the perfect sort of way that suggested a happy apple pie, American life.

"Well, now I want to throw up," Dean muttered.

"Come on," Castiel said, already started toward the first house. "We have no time to waste."

He disappeared into one of the houses, and appeared a second later. "Sam, Dean, you need to deliver your gifts."

"Right," Dean replied sarcastically. "Okay then, I guess it's now or never, I'm not waking up from this crazy-ass dream, so I might as well get it done." He walked down the street and chose a house, going to the window. He pulled out his knife and slid it under the frame, popping the lock and climbing inside.

The Christmas tree sat in a corner of the room and he went over there, reaching into his bag.

"Now how am I supposed to know which ones…" He saw that all the ones he had pulled out matched the names on the stockings, in fact, all the presents in the bags did. He nodded, impressed and emptied the gifts under the tree. He was just standing up to leave when he spotted a plate of cookies. He grinned. "Awesome." He snagged a couple and a gulp of the milk then slipped back out the window.

Sam was just finishing up and they met at the next house, Sam picking the lock on the back door as Dean slipped inside, emptying another bag of presents that magically appeared.

"This isn't so bad," Dean said, munching on another cookie.

"Dude, are you going to eat cookies from every house?" Sam asked.

"Of course! You should too! The kids aren't going to like it if their cookies are snubbed."

Sam huffed, but moved onto the next house and the next and the next before they moved to the next street of houses and another after that. There did seem to be something magic about the coat and hats though, because time seemed to pass differently. Like they were able to get more things done in an hour than Dean ever would have imagined. And it wasn't as bad as he thought, even though his stomach was starting to protest at the amount of cookies.

Finally Cas flew them to the next place and they started all over again. It was exhausting work, but it was also kind of fun too. Both Sam and Dean had to admit it. Besides, free cookies and sometimes other treats were left.

Dean looked to the hearth at one house and found a glass of brandy.

"Oh, jack pot," he said, grabbing the glass and tossing it back as Sam looked on, unimpressed.

"Dean, seriously?"

"What? It was left for Santa, tonight we're Santa!" Dean took a cookie and shoved it into Sam's hand. "Eat a cookie!"

The next house Dean had to climb over a fence before breaking in through the window. Okay, he refused to call it breaking in, he was Santa's helper after all; it wasn't his fault that he couldn't get in through the chimney.

He left the presents like he had before, and bent to grab a cookie, before realizing his stomach was stuffed and aching.

"Woof, how does old St. Nick do it?" he mused before turning back to the window. He slid out and closed it behind him when a growing sounded to his left. He looked over, jumping slightly, and saw a big dog standing there, lips pulled back in a snarl. Dean smiled and held his hand out.

"Hey, buddy, I'm not here to hurt you, just delivering presents. Please let there be a bone in here," he fished in the bag but it was empty and the dog was advancing on him. "Nice doggy?"

The dog lunged with a bark and Dean burst into a sprint, running for the fence, but as he went to jump over it, the gate opened and he tumbled through, getting back on his feet just in time for the dog to come tearing after him. He pounded down the street, the dog hot on his heels.

"Sam!"

~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Sam and Cas had taken a big house further down the street. It was the home of several children, and many presents came out of the bags.

"Is it customary to eat the cookies left?" Castiel asked as Sam arraigned the presents more neatly under the tree.

Sam shrugged. "Dean seems to think so."

"Oh, I suppose I should then, if it will make the children happy," Cas said and took a gingerbread man, and looked at it suspiciously. "I do find it odd though, that they would make them into the shape of humans. Is that not some strange form of cannibalism?"

Sam huffed an amused laugh. "I think you're overthinking it, Cas. They're good, have one."

Cas took a cautious bite of the cookie just as a small gasp was heard from behind them. Both of them whipped around to find a small girl standing in the doorway of the room, her mouth wide open as she stared between Sam and Cas and the presents under the tree.

"Um, Sam, what do we do?" Cas asked quietly.

"Santa?" the little girl finally gasped out, coming closer and looking up at Castiel.

The angel gave her a small smile. "No, I'm Castiel. Santa is…"

Sam suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth, hoping to avoid scarring the poor little girl for life. "At another house! We're his elves!"

The little girl craned her head back to look up at the younger Winchester.

"Wow, you're a big elf," she said.

"That's because I ate my veggies," Sam said. "We have to go now, lot's more presents to deliver."

"Okay, bye!" she waved as Sam and Cas made a quick exit out the back door.

"Where to next?" Sam asked.

"I think…" Cas was interrupted by a loud barking and Dean's unmistakable shout for his younger brother.

"Sammy!"

"Dean, what the—" his brother ran by with a large, angry, dog on his heels.

"Get it away from me!" Dean yelled.

Lights were going on down the street, and Sam looked at Cas at if hoping for an answer but the angel simply materialized in front of Dean and the dog, touching the animal's head so it slumped to the ground with a tired whimper. Dean came to a stop, hands on knees, panting.

"Thanks, Cas," he said, breathing heavily.

"You didn't kill the dog, did you?" Sam asked, coming up to them.

"Really, Sammy? That's all you can think about?" Dean asked, glaring at his brother.

"No, it's just asleep," Castiel replied.

There were voices of several more people and the sounds of doors opening. Sam looked to Cas quickly.

"Did we finish up here?" he asked.

"I think so," the angel nodded.

"Good, then let's get out of here before they call the police!" Dean said and Cas flew them to the next town.

This one went a little smoother, at least no dogs ending up chasing Dean. After they finished up with an apartment complex, they headed to another subdivision and Dean jimmied open the window of the first house, having to hop up on the sill. This was a much richer neighborhood, and he hoped there wasn't an alarm on. He crept through the house to the tree and began to unload the presents, glad that there didn't seem to be any cookies here. His stomach was definitely aching. Sam could have helped pick up the slack a little. Though, he supposed he could always just make Cas eat them all. The angel could really pack food away when he wanted to.

"Well, hello."

Dean started and looked up, twisting around and finding a very attractive woman standing at the bottom of the stairs. He froze, unsure of what to do and praying she didn't call the police. He gave a slow grin. "Hello yourself."

"So, what are you, a thief or Santa Clause?"

"I'm dropping off," he told her, reaching into the bag and pulling out a present. He peeked at the nametag on it. "Candy?"

She smiled and came closer. "So what, you're like the new, hotter model? Do I still call you Santa?"

"You can call me whatever you want," Dean told her with a smirk.

She smiled wider. "So have I been naughty?"

"Not yet…"

"Dean!"

Dean turned around to see Sam frantically waving from the window. He gave a longsuffering look.

"Is that your elf?" Candy asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Yeah, and I kind of have to go. You know, presents to deliver and all…call me after the holiday." He grinned and turned, nearly tripping over the presents as he slipped out the window.

"Dude, what were you thinking?" Sam demanded as they rushed down the street, back to where Cas was.

"Aw come on, Sammy, it's Christmas, give me a break," Dean complained.

"She could have called the police," Sam protested.

"Dude, chill."

Then suddenly an alarm sounded out in the quiet night and Cas appeared in front of them with wide eyes.

"I…didn't know that would happen," he said apologetically as lights flew on in the house he had just vacated and others around it.

"Well, let's go then!" Dean growled and grabbed the sleeve of the Dead Santa coat and dragged the angel down the street and out of the light.

"But we're not done here," Castiel protested.

"Then let's finish quick!" Dean said and Cas instantly flew them from house to house, as they simply dumped presents out in untidy piles and Dean snatched cookies to go, for posterity sake, even though Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head at him.

They ended up back on the street just as police sirens wailed down the road, coming toward them.

"Crap," Dean grunted, pulling them back around the corner of a house.

"There's one more," Cas told them, pointing across the street.

"Go," Sam urged and Cas disappeared as the brothers peeked around at the commotion.

"What's going on here?" a police officer was asking the man from the house where the alarm had gone off.

"Not sure, looked like a couple guys in Santa costumes were trying to rob the place!"

Cas appeared across the street and Sam and Dean quickly waved him over. He walked across the street, frowning and the police instantly shouted.

"There's one of them!"

"Cas!" Dean growled as he and Sam ran to meet him. "Let's go!"

Castiel grabbed their shoulders and they were away in another instant, the shouting of the police fading away.

The rest of the night went better, no more mishaps occurred after Castiel figured out he could disable any alarms before he entered a house and they delivered the last of the presents on the coast of Washington just as the sky was getting lighter.

"Is this the last one?" Dean asked, almost too tired to stand.

"Yes," Castiel replied. He looked more exhausted than Dean had ever seen him before, and the elder Winchester hoped this hadn't taken too much out of the angel in his weakened state.

"Let's get back to the motel then and get some shuteye," Dean said with a yawn. "I'm beat."

"Me too," Sam yawned as well.

"Let's go then," Castiel said and flew them first back to Santa's sleigh. He shrugged off the coat and seemed to sag even more without it as he took up his trench again and folded it over an arm. Sam and Dean took off the hats and felt the exhaustion hit them harder than before. The items must have been giving them an energy boost or something.

"I feel like I could sleep for a week," Sam said as he put his bag back inside the sleigh as well.

"Me too," Dean groaned. "Hey, so if Santa really is real, and does actually magically bring presents to kids, why didn't he ever bring anything to us? I mean, we never got anything!"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know Dean. Maybe all the warding we always put up kept him away."

"That would be just awesome," Dean grunted and went to throw his own bag into the sleigh when he felt a clunk inside. He frowned and opened it up, groaning as he saw two more presents in there. "Aw, man, don't tell me we forgot some."

"We couldn't have," Sam frowned. "The right presents always came out at each house, never any more."

Dean frowned and reached inside, taking out the two neatly wrapped presents and looking at them. "Hey, these are for us, Sammy."

"What?" Sam asked, grabbing the box Dean handed to him.

Castiel smiled slightly. "It looks like Santa Claus didn't forget you after all."

"Let's get back to our room and open them," Dean said.

Cas flew them back to the room where they all kicked off their shoes and slid out of their coats, getting comfortable. Sam turned up the heater, and Dean grabbed the eggnog out of the mini-fridge while Castiel got the cups. After pouring some whisky into the nog, Dean poured it out for the three of them and went to sit at the table across from Sam, groaning as he rubbed his distended stomach with a wince.

"I think I really overdid it on the cookies."

"Ya think?" Sam asked, looking to where Dean's coat hung over the back of a chair, the pockets still filled with cookies. Dean groaned and sipped at his eggnog before he turned to his present.

"Let's see what Santa gave us," he said and tore the paper off. He laughed, his face lighting up in a grin as he saw what it was.

"Dude! Check it out, it's a lightsaber! Do you remember how much I wanted one of these after Bobby took us to see the first Star Wars movie when it came out?"

Sam grinned, indeed remembering how much Dean had been hoping for a lightsaber that Christmas. He turned to his own present and unwrapped it, laughing as he turned the box to Dean.

"Rock 'em Sock em' Robots!" Sam said, smiling so that his dimples showed, it was the first real smile Dean had seen in a long time.

"You wanted that for years!" Dean said, watching happily as Sam opened the box and started to set up the game. "Wanna play?"

"You're on, winner plays Cas," Sam said and looked up, expecting to see the angel standing at Dean's shoulder but he wasn't there. A snore sounded through the room, and both he and Dean looked over to see the angel curled up on one of the beds, his empty cup of eggnog sitting on the side table. Dean chuckled.

"Guess the poor fella' really got tuckered out tonight." He stood up and pulled the quilt over Cas, before returning to the table with Sam. He picked up his eggnog and touched Sam's glass.

"Merry Christmas, little brother."

"Merry Christmas Dean."

 


	6. No Place Like Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pretty much a Christmas in the bunker with everyone, Jody, Charlie, Claire, Kevin…an AU where no one is dead and everything is happy :)

"I can't believe you actually broke your ankle hanging Christmas lights, Dean. I mean, stuff that normal just doesn't happen to us. I'm almost frightened."

"Oh bite me," Dean growled at his brother's smirking face as Sam helped him position the plaster covered leg on top of a pillow as Dean sat on the couch in the living room they had made in the bunker, flipping channels on TV. "Dude, it's Christmas Eve and I'm all laid up. And everyone has decided to come this year! I can't believe it!"

"Look, I know you're grouchy," Sam said, fighting back another smirk, "But at least try to be in a holly jolly mood. Jody's going to be here soon with the girls, and you know she's not going to allow you to mope around."

Dean grunted something under his breath and shot Sam a look. His younger brother sighed and straightened up after patting Dean's knee rougher than necessary.

"Fine, I'll leave you alone for a while then. I think I heard Cas come in."

As if on cue, Castiel arrived in the room with shopping bags, having come back from a shopping trip he'd had to go on while Sam took Dean to the ER. He smiled at the brothers. "I believe I procured all the items that you asked for. I was a bit confused about the pumpkin for the pie, but a nice young lady there showed me what to get."

Sam smiled. "Great, Cas, thanks for taking care of that."

"No problem," the angel told him. "How's Dean?" seeing Dean sitting on the couch glaring, Cas turned to him. "How are you, Dean?"

"How do you think, Cas?" Dean demanded.

"Well, I did advise you against using that old ladder. It didn't look steady."

"I'm not exactly in the mood for 'I told you so's," Dean snapped at the angel.

Castiel gave him a longsuffering look before turning to Sam. "Has Claire arrived with Jody yet?"

"Not yet, but Jody called and said they would probably be here within the hour. And that just leaves Charlie, who will be here by tonight. Kevin is making up the guest rooms now." Sam stepped forward and grabbed the bags from Cas. "Why don't you keep Dean company while I put the groceries away?"

Dean rolled his eyes as Cas sat down in the chair across from Dean. "I'm sorry you had to get hurt for the holidays, Dean," he said.

"Whatever, I guess you did tell me so," Dean grunted.

Cas watched the TV idly for a few seconds until Dean flipped the channel again, then turned back to his friend. "I'm…rather nervous about seeing Claire again."

Dean turned to the angel. "Hey, man, I think you parted on good terms last time, and Jody will have put her to rights by now. She's good at that."

Cas sighed deeply. "I know, I just always feel awkward. I have had no experience with teenage girls, and the parenting books really don't make sense to me."

Dean snorted a laugh. "You read parenting books?"

Cas frowned. "Yes, why not? I was trying to figure her out."

Dean decided to sober up, knowing this was a big deal for Cas. "Look, Cas, just be yourself and you'll do great. Remember, don't try to be her dad, because you aren't, be like…her uncle or something. Her strange, awkward uncle who always gives her the weird Christmas presents."

"I think my gift for her is very thoughtful," Castiel said defensively.

"You never showed it to me."

"Sam helped me pick it out, you'll see it when she opens it."

Kevin came into the room then with a pile of clean sheets. "There are way more guest rooms than I ever thought in here," he said. "And all of them dusty and unused."

"Dude we only need four," Dean told him.

"I know but it's still a lot of work, and you had to go and break your ankle," the young man said in annoyance.

"Yeah, I'm beginning to be glad for it," Dean told him. "Cas can help, he has nervous energy to expel."

"That would be great," Kevin grinned. "I still have presents to wrap."

"I'll run the vacuum," Castiel said enthusiastically. The angel had become fascinating with it after Dean had made him clean up spilled popcorn the week before and had taken every opportunity to use it.

"Sammy!" Dean called after Cas had left. "I'm hungry!"

Sam came out of the kitchen an annoyed look on his face. "Dean, I'm kind of busy."

"I haven't had lunch yet!"

"Well, let me finish putting the groceries away first, okay?"

Dean grumbled and turned back to the TV. He dozed off and woke later realizing he still hadn't gotten any lunch and it was almost two o'clock. He could hear bustling around the bunker but didn't know if anyone could hear him.

"Didn't even leave me any crutches," Dean grunted.

A knock came on the bunker door.

"Hey, Sam, Cas, someone's at the door, it's probably Jody!" he called.

Sam came through the room at a trot, and ran up the stairs to open the door.

"Sure, he comes for Jody but not because I need food," Dean said under his breath, feeling sorry for himself.

"Jody!" Sam exclaimed as the older woman came in.

"Hey, Sam, how are you doing?" Jody asked, giving him a hug and ushering Claire and Alex in behind her, both of them carrying luggage and presents.

"I'll show you the rooms you can put your luggage in," Sam told them. "I think Kevin and Cas have finished cleaning them."

They passed by the room Dean was in and Jody caught sight of him, stopping and putting her hands on her hips. "And what did you do to yourself now, young man?"

"Hello to you too, Jody," Dean said.

"He fell off the ladder putting up Christmas lights," Sam informed her.

"Sammy," Dean growled.

"You broke your ankle?" Jody asked, coming in.

"Yup," Dean replied. "So I'm laid up, and no one can even be bothered to get me lunch."

Sam groaned. "Sorry, I'll get it in a second."

"Don't worry, I'll make Dean his lunch," Jody told the younger brother, before she bent and gave Dean a hug. "I know Bobby would have my hide if I didn't take care of you boys. Besides," she added in a whisper. "Amazingly enough, I think you two are easier than two teenage girls."

Dean chuckled at that. "Oh, they must be real terrors then."

"You don't know the half of it," she said and patted his knee. "Alright then, lunch."

After she had procured tomato soup and grilled cheese for Dean, Jody went to find where Alex and Claire had gone off to.

Castiel was just finishing up in one of the rooms, putting a quilt on the bed (it got very cold in the bunker) when he turned around and saw Claire standing there in the doorway with Sam.

"Oh, Claire, hello, I heard you come in," Cas said, smiling, as he wondered whether he should give her a hug or not.

Sam nudged her forward and she smiled back and gave the angel a quick squeeze that made Cas smile genuinely.

"How are you, Castiel?" she asked.

"I am…well," Cas replied. "How do you like staying with Jody Mills?"

"She's pretty cool, and I like Alex a lot," Claire said with the typical lackluster teenage response, but Cas figured that was good enough.

"I'm glad you could come for the Christmas celebrations this year," Cas told her. "It's good to see you again."

"You too," Claire said and that made Cas even happier.

"This is where you can stay," Sam told her.

"Thanks, I need to unpack a few things, I'll see you guys later," she said, obviously a dismissal.

"Sure, come on Cas, we need to start working on dinner," Sam said, ushering his friend out of the room.

Cas breathed a sigh as they walked down the hall. "Do you think that went all right?"

Sam smiled. "Yeah, I think she's mellowed out a lot."

"Hey Cas," Jody said, coming down the hall to meet them. She gave the angel a hug too.

"Hello Jody, it's good to see you. I meant to thank you for looking after Claire."

"Oh, it's nothing. It seems I have a thing for taking in wayward orphans," she grinned at Sam as she said it. "Now you said something about dinner? Can I help?"

They retreated to the kitchen where they set about making dough for homemade pizza, which is what they were planning on having that night. Meanwhile, Kevin was laughing with the girls as they chatted in the library and Dean was feeling left out since he couldn't leave the couch until someone thought about bringing him crutches.

Then the bunker door opened again and Charlie's voice came down the stairs. "It was open so I thought I would just come in."

Sam and Cas came out of the kitchen. "Hey, Charlie!" They both gave her hugs and Cas took her bag for her.

"Where's Dean?" she asked.

"I'm in here, that's for remembering!" Dean called.

Charlie hurried into the den and gasped as she saw his leg in a cast. "Oh no! What did you do? Was it a hunt gone wrong?"

"More like extreme Christmas decorating," Dean grunted as she bent down to hug him.

"Well, you know what this means, don't you," she said. "Lord of the Rings marathon! And the extended editions, not the theatrical versions."

"Oh, I can't wait," Dean grunted sarcastically.

"Cheer up, it's Christmas! And I don't allow any scrooges around me when it's Christmas," Charlie said. "Don't think I won't make you wear an ugly Christmas sweater!"

"It just gets better," Dean moaned. "But it's good to see you, kiddo."

"You too, Dean," Charlie said, then looked up as Kevin came in with Claire and Alex. "Hey, Kevin! You up for a rematch on Call of Duty tonight?"

"Why, so you can cream me again?" Kevin asked with a good-natured smirk as he gave Charlie a hug.

"Hey, if you hadn't spent so much time trying to be an honor roll student you could have gotten good at video games like normal kids," Charlie told him.

"Alright, you're on."

"Hey, pizza's almost done, kids, why don't you head to the table," Jody called.

"Hey, a little help?" Dean complained.

"Oh, honey, I forgot about you, do you have any crutches here?"

Jody looked in the small clinic the bunker had and managed to dig up a pair of crutches. She then helped Dean get up and lean on her until he got the crutches in the right position and was able to hobble forward.

"There you go."

Sam looked up as Dean made his way slowly into the room, and hurried to help him sit down. "Hey, Dean, I'm sorry, I meant to get you the crutches earlier."

"Oh, it's okay, it's not like I'm your only brother or anything," Dean grunted.

"Hey, less of the attitude, young man," Jody told him, smacking the back of his head lightly.

Dean looked slightly affronted, but did as he was told. Sam smirked and turned back to the kitchen to grab the pizzas. Cas was making awkward conversation with Claire and Charlie was talking to Kevin and Alex. Over all it was looking like it was going to be an enjoyable, family Christmas, something the Winchesters had never experienced before.

After they finished dinner and Jody told Claire and Alex to do up the dishes, they moved to the den, where Charlie and Kevin instantly set up the Xbox and started playing. Cas watched them with interest as Sam and Dean chatted with Jody until Claire and Alex finished and Dean turned to Kevin and Charlie.

"Okay, kids, enough playing, it's time to watch some Christmas movies!"

Sam popped in Christmas Story and they all sat together and watched it, laughing the whole time. Dean looked around at the people gathered there, his family, and was incredibly thankful that he was able to share the holiday with them this year. It had been a hard couple years for him and Sam—when was it not?—but knowing they still had people like this who would come and spend Christmas with them like an actual family did made him happy. More than he would probably ever admit.

Finally, they went off to bed and Sam helped him to his room, seeming apologetic that he had forgotten him earlier.

It took Dean a long time to get his foot situated, the cast heavy and lumpy and all around uncomfortable. Finally, he gave up on sleeping and got up on his crutches awkwardly, heading out to the kitchen for a midnight snack because he was hungry again.

"Dean?" he heard his name whispered down the hallway and turned to see Jody slipping out of her door. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just can't get comfortable, I'm going to get something to eat."

Jody closed the door behind her and followed him to the kitchen where she too had a bowl of cereal with Dean.

"Maybe you should try sleeping in one of the recliners, that way your foot will be elevated," Jody suggested as they finished.

"I'm up for anything," Dean said and made his way slowly into the den, which was lit by the cozy glow of the colored Christmas lights that they had put up before his accident. Jody went to get his pillow and a blanket and came back as he sort of fell awkwardly into the chair, dropping the crutches with a curse in the process. Jody collected them and propped them against the chair.

"I sprained my knee real bad a couple years ago, and had to be on crutches," she told him. "It's not fun, but you'll get used to it. Here, you good now?"

"I'm not five, you know, I can take care of myself," he said half-heartedly. "I've had worse."

"Oh, I'm sure," Jody said in her no-nonsense mom voice. "But I'm going to take care of you whether you like it or not. So are you good?"

Dean smiled as she tucked a blanket around him. "Yeah, I think so, thanks Jody."

"Just try to get some sleep," she said.

Dean dozed and didn't wake up again until he heard footsteps and then felt a hand on his shoulder shaking him. He looked up blearily at Charlie's grinning face.

"Get up, Dean, it's Christmas!" she said and suddenly everyone else was trooping into the room. Dean allowed Charlie to help him get the chair into an upright position as he rubbed his eyes.

"What time is it?" he grumbled.

"Christmas time!" Charlie told him as she and the other girls and Kevin went to the tree set up in a corner and started going through the presents and rattling them.

"I'll start the coffee," Sam said with a yawn.

Pretty soon, after coffee was had, presents were exchanged rapidly and torn open to exclamations of excitement and thanks from those involved. Dean and Sam, who was sitting at his older brother's feet, were continuously surprised by the things that they received from everyone, Cas included, who gave Dean a new knife, and Sam a blank journal.

"You're a man of letters now, so I thought you may want one of your own," he explained.

"Thanks, Cas, this is great!" Sam told him.

Cas looked pleased and turned back to watch the others, but mostly stayed on the sidelines. Dean noticed he looked somewhat nervous every time Claire picked up a present and he finally reached over to tap his friend on the knee.

"Cas, hey, you should give Claire her gift now," he said quietly.

"But what if she doesn't like it?" the angel hissed back.

"Well, then it's not the worst thing that could happen," Dean told him with a smile. "Come on, man, you have nothing to lose."

Cas opened his mouth, but didn't say anything; instead he got up and pulled a rectangular, flat present off of a shelf beside the Christmas tree before going over to Claire. Sam and Dean shared a look, then watched as the angel handed the present to the girl.

"Claire, this is for you. I…wasn't sure what you would like, but Sam and Kevin helped me put this together."

Claire took the present with a curious smile and opened it to reveal a photo album. Opening it up, she found pictures of her and her parents from when she was little before everything had happened and Castiel had had to take Jimmy Novak away from his family. Cas watched anxiously, his hands clasped, as he saw Claire's fingers shake until she finally looked up at him, tears in her eyes, but a smile on her face.

"Thanks, Castiel, this…it really means a lot." Then she lurched forward and hugged him suddenly.

Cas' face broke into a relived grin as he held her close. "I'm glad you like it."

Dean nudged Sam with his good foot. "Was that your idea, little brother?" he asked.

Sam shrugged. "Cas wanted to give her something nice, I thought she might like some good memories; that it might help erase the bad ones. So Kevin and I contacted some of her distant relatives and found a box of pictures her grandmother had left when she died."

"You did good," Dean said. 'So did Cas. Of course, she might have also thought it was sort of heart wrenching and painful…ow!"

Sam punched Dean's good foot. "Shut up, she likes it."

Cas came back to them with a smile. "Thanks, Sam, you were right."

"I'm glad she liked it, Cas," Dean told him. "Merry Christmas, dude."

Later, they sat down to a real Christmas dinner with a ham and mashed potatoes and rolls and a bunch of other side dishes that everyone demolished almost before the sat down, but Sam cleared his throat halfway through the meal and everyone turned to look at him.

"Um, I just thought I'd say a couple things while everyone is here."

"Aw, come on Sam," Dean grunted, but only half-heartedly.

Sam shot him a look before he smiled. "You guys have all been such great friends to Dean and I, when we thought that maybe we didn't have any friends left. Everyone here has always come through for us when we least expect it, and you are all our family and we are so thankful to have you. And I'm sure Dean will say the same."

Dean rolled his eyes, but gave a small smile. "Yeah, same here. You guys really mean a lot to Sammy and me, and this is probably the only time I'll ever say that, so you had better listen now."

Everyone laughed, and Jody raised her glass. "To family."

"To family," everyone echoed and drank.

"Merry Christmas everyone," Dean said.

"Merry Christmas!"


	7. Good Tidings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is an AU where Sam and Dean have adopted a little girl and Crowley randomly decides to show up for Christmas

"Hey, Sammy, have you seen Sadie anywhere?" Dean asked as he came into the bunker's library with another box of decorations in his arms.

Sam, who stood on a ladder, currently stringing lights on top of the bookcases, looked down at his brother and nodded toward the kitchen. "I think she went with Cas to choose cookies for Santa."

Dean smiled and dropped the box off before heading toward the kitchen where he could hear the angel and a little giggling voice through the halls.

"This is the gingerbread man I made, it looks like you, Uncle Cas!" she exclaimed as Dean came into the room.

"It is a very good rendering, Sadie," Cas said. "Do you think that's enough cookies?"

"Yep, gotta get some milk now!" She ran off to the fridge as Dean smiled, leaning against the doorway.

"Hey, cupcake, you finishing up? You gotta go to bed or you won't be asleep before Santa comes."

Sadie pouted. "But I wanna stay up and listen to the music with Uncle Sammy and Uncle Cas!"

"They'll be plenty of time for that tomorrow," Dean said, grabbing a glass for her as she tried to climb onto the counter.

Sadie had been a little girl they rescued several months ago after her family was killed by vampires. For whatever reason, she had really taken to Dean and by the time the case was over, he couldn't stand the thought of letting her go so he had adopted her himself. It might not have been an ideal situation, but for now it was the best thing for the little girl, especially since they had been able to find no extended family for her. Neither Dean or Sam or Cas wanted her to end up in the system so they agreed that they would all help look after her when there were hunts, but she was still Dean's girl.

"Woah," he cautioned as she tried to pour the milk at a height above her head. "Let me do this okay?"

Dean poured about half a glass of milk and handed the plate of cookies to the little girl. "Where do you want them?"

"By the fireplace, silly!" she exclaimed.

"We don't exactly have a fireplace," Dean said.

Sadie frowned. "Then how will Santa come bring presents?"

"He doesn't need a chimney, he can come in the door," Dean assured her. "Why don't we put them by the tree, that way he can see them when he puts the presents under it?"

"Okay!" Sadie skipped off, almost spilling the cookies. Dean smiled as he watched her go. He felt terrible that this would be the first Christmas she was having without her parents, but he was determined to make it a good one. And really, it had been years since he and Sam had had a real Christmas anyway. It would be fun.

Sam was just getting off the ladder as Sadie came running in with the plate of cookies. Sam chuckles as she came to a stop, nearly sliding in her socks, next to the tree.

"Woah, slow down!" Sam said. "Did you pick the cookies?"

"Yep, see, they are the ones I made specially," she said proudly, pointing to the four gingerbread cookies with messy icing on them. "This one is you, this one is Uncle Dean, this is Uncle Cas, and this one is me!"

Sam smiled as he crouched down beside her. "You did a good job, I think Santa will really like them."

"Yup," Dean said as he set the glass of milk down and scooped the girl up, tickling her as she giggled. "But someone needs to go to bed!"

"But I don't wanna!"

"Well, if you don't go to bed, we won't have time for stories," Dean told her seriously. "And you want to read a special Christmas story, don't you?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed and wiggled out of his arms, running to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Dean grinned and followed as he listened to Sam directing Cas with where to put the lights. Dean oversaw the bedtime ritual then went with Sadie to her room. They had put one together specially for her, getting a large area rug to cover the hard and cold cement floor that the bunker had and shelves and a toy box and a bedspread she had picked out herself. Never had Dean thought they would see pink anywhere near the bunker but it had happened.

After she had dressed in her pajamas, she crawled into bed and Dean joined her as she curled up next to him and rested a book in his lap.

"Ready?" he asked her as she grabbed her stuffed unicorn and cuddled it close.

"Yes!" she said.

"Okay," Dean cleared his throat and started to read. "Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…"

Sadie was already drowsy by the time the story was finished and Dean slid off the bed and tucked the blanket around her, bending to kiss her forehead. "Goodnight, princess," he said fondly as he went out to 'play Santa' and deliver the presents. And then maybe drink some of Sam's infamous eggnog.

Sadie slept through the night, but woke sometime before dawn and looked at the clock, seeing it was a little after six. That was when she usually got up on Christmas so she thought it must be okay. She slid off the bed and hurried out to the library, which was lit with colored lights and had the Christmas tree glowing in the corner with lots of presents stashed underneath. Sadie squealed and jumped up and down. She turned around and nearly ran into Cas.

"Uncle Cas, look at all the presents!" she said.

"There are quite a lot of them," he replied with a smile. "Would you like to look at them?"

"I wanna wake up Uncle Dean and Uncle Sammy first," she said, grabbing Cas' hand. "Come on!"

Sam was first and Cas helped lift the girl so she could shake his shoulder, and used his hair to tickle his nose. "Uncle Sammy! It's Christmas!"

Sam woke groggily, rubbing his nose, but he smiled as he saw Sadie hanging over him. "Okay, I'm up. Go get Dean."

"Come on, Uncle Cas!" Sadie said, wiggling back to the ground and running down the hall to Dean's room. She took a flying leap onto the bed, and Dean startled awake as she sprawled across his chest and patted his cheeks.

"Wake up! It's Christmas, come on and see all the presents Santa brought me!"

"Okay, I'm coming," Dean said and wrapped his arms around Sadie, rolling over and pretending to sleep again as she tried to get away, giggling.

"No, silly, let's go!"

"Oh, okay," Dean said, hiding a grin, and got up, following Sadie out and down the hall to the library.

"Wow, Sadie there really are a lot of presents," he grinned. "Where do you want to start?"

Pretty soon the library was covered in papers and the little girl's excitement and happiness was infectious to the three men sitting on the floor among it.

After hours of putting together toys (some of which took all three of them to do) Dean finally excused himself to start on making their Christmas meal. He got a ham and was determined to make it good since Sam seemed skeptical as to his culinary skills.

He was halfway through preparation when there was a knock on the bunker door. He frowned.

"Who's that?" Sam asked, from the other room.

Dean went toward the door, grabbing a knife on the way. "Keep Sadie in there, okay?"

He went to open it and was surprised, not to mention annoyed and wary, when he saw Crowley standing there.

"Well, are you going to invite me in, Squirrel?" the demon asked.

Dean frowned. "No. Why are you here?"

"Wassailing," Crowley said sarcastically. "I came to talk business. As much as it pains me, there's something I may need you boys' help with."

"Yeah, not happening. It's Christmas."

"Hello, I don't exactly celebrate it," Crowley said with a shrug. "You can't spare ten minutes? You really want me to come back tomorrow?"

"Try after New Year's," Dean said, then suddenly felt a hand on the back of his leg and looked down in horror to see Sadie.

"Hi," she said to Crowley with a shy smile.

"Sadie, go back and play with Uncle Cas," Dean told her quickly, turning to glare up at Crowley in warning.

"I just wanted to see," she complained. Sam and Cas appeared on the stairs then, looking ready for a fight. Crowley seemed to see this and smiled back at the little girl, crouching down to her height.

"Well, aren't you just adorable, my name's Crowley, what's yours?"

"Sadie," she said. "Are you staying for Christmas?"

"Oh, I don't…"

"Yeah, he's going," Dean added but Sadie had already reached out and grabbed Crowley's hand, surprising the King of Hell and nearly giving her three guardians a heart-attack.

"Please stay, Uncle Crowley," she said.

"Well…" Crowley looked up at Dean and shrugged. "Truce?" he inquired.

Dean rolled his eyes, but looked down at Sadie's innocent face and tucked his knife away. "Yeah, all right, fine. But you need to be on your best behavior."

"Yes, mother," Crowley snarked and followed Sadie down the stairs.

"Wanna see what I got for Christmas?" she asked him.

"I would love to."

"Is this a good idea?" Sam asked as Dean followed.

"He's not going to try anything here," Dean said. "I guess we'll just have to make do, and have Christmas with the King of Hell. Our lives are too weird, man."

Cas watched Crowley and Sadie while Sam helped Dean finish up the Christmas meal and pretty soon they were all sitting around the table, King of Hell and all. And even Sam had to admit that Dean had made a good ham.

Even though Crowley stayed for the rest of the afternoon and played with Sadie, Dean had to admit it was a good Christmas and he was grateful to have his family, both blood and adopted (and that meant Crowley was that weird uncle you had to invite but no one really wanted around) and that they could actually enjoy the day without having to worry about saving the world for once.

That night after Crowley had left they watched Christmas movies and Sadie dozed off in Dean's arms, and he thought he had never been so content.


	8. Christmas Miracle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cas is badly wounded on a hunt and Sam and Dean aren't sure he'll even make it to Christmas

Dean sat next to Cas' bed, elbows on the edge of the mattress, and his hands propping his head upright. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose where a headache was starting and let out a sigh before returning his gaze to Cas' pale, flushed face, half expecting—hoping—that the angel would have his eyes open again, staring at Dean with probably some confusion and not without a little indignation. He always insisted that angels could heal from everything if they weren't killed outright, after all—even though he wasn't exactly being convincing about it at the moment.

"Come on, buddy," Dean muttered, running his hands over his face tiredly. "It's three days until Christmas, you know. Not that I care about that, but Sammy will be upset—he was looking forward to having one now that we actually have a home." Partly a lie, Dean had been kinda looking forward to it too, but it wasn't like he was going to announce that girly thought in the open. Cas might still be able to hear him. "Besides, angels shouldn't be allowed to miss Jesus' birthday." Dean waited for Cas to open his mouth and lecture him—not for the first time—on the fact that modern Christmas had been based around ancient pagan rituals and not the actual birth of Jesus, but there was nothing. Cas was still unconscious.

Dean sighed, giving up hope of the angel waking for the moment, and leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes and, like every time he did that the last couple days, the hunt played out behind his eyelids.

_They'd heard about the hunt when reports of a supposed 'disease' kept cropping up in a small town in Arizona, and even though it was supposed to be their vacation from all things weird for a couple weeks to take it easy and celebrate the holidays, Dean, stir-crazy as usual, had convinced Sam and Cas that they needed to make sure more people didn't die—especially around Christmas. Sam and Cas of course instantly agreed and the three of them set off._

_It wasn't until a ton of research and an eyewitness account, that they found out they were hunting something none of them knew even existed—a basilisk. Go figure. Dean just barely kept Sam from nerding out on him long enough to go hunt down the sucker._

_They tracked it to its lair and attempted to lure it out so that they would be able to kill it in the way Sam had discovered in an arcane manuscript: holding a mirror in front of it. Supposedly the only thing that could kill it was it's own reflection._

_Of course, as they had found out the hard way several times in their long career, arcane manuscripts weren't always accurate._

_Long story short, the basilisk came out of its hole, slammed the mirror out of Sam's hand, and made a beeline for Dean who just happened to be in the wrong place._

_Dean didn't have time to get his gun out, didn't even know if that would do any good, and was just bracing for the thing to bite him and get its venom into his bloodstream, when he was suddenly slammed to the ground, getting a mouthful of dirt._

_There was a shriek of the creature and a pained grunt before Dean rolled back to his feet, gun held at the ready, only to see Cas crouching on the ground with his angel blade through the basilisk's neck. Sam was pulling himself back to his feet a couple yards away, still holding the useless mirror, a look of horror on his face that Dean couldn't see the reason for._

_"Cas?" Sam asked hesitantly._

_Dean frowned and looked down at his friend, seeing for the first time that he was clutching his right calf with an odd expression on his face. Dean was instantly kneeling down beside him, Sam not far behind._

_"Cas?" Dean echoed his brother's earlier inquiry, reaching out a hand to tentatively rest on the angel's shoulder. "Did it bite you?"_

_"I—I think I'm fine," Cas replied, and was already making to stand up, and Dean and Sam had no choice but to help him. He shook them off, an annoyed crease in his brow. "Seriously, I'm alright."_

_"We should at least look at that," Sam insisted, nodding to the dark patch on his trouser leg where blood was seeping through._

_"Very well," Cas grumbled, and took two steps before he fell face-first into the dirt._

Dean blamed himself, obviously. He was the one who insisted they go on the hunt. He was the one who had stood in harm's way and made Cas have to rescue him. The poor dude could never seem to catch a break these days, especially when it came to protecting Dean and his brother.

Dean looked up from his hands as he heard the door open and looked up to see Sam coming in, casting a glance between the bed and his older brother.

"Hey," he said softly. "Any change?"

"Does it look like it?" Dean grunted, but instantly regretted it. It wasn't Sam's fault after all, even with the faulty research.

Sam gave a half-smile, understanding his brother's snappish attitude. "I'm still looking for an anti-venom or something that may work…haven't really found anything yet, but I still have a ton to go through."

Dean wanted to roll his eyes. They had been looking for a cure ever since they had gotten Cas back to the bunker three days ago. Three long days, where Cas' high fever had topped out at 110 that would have fried a normal human. They had to put him into several ice baths, which only seemed to make him react in slight discomfort, and even then his temperature never went under 105. This was consist with the symptons of the other victims, only they had expired within two days at the most. The poison seemed to be eating away at Cas slowly, due to his angelic nature, and Dean's secret worry was that it was damaging his grace too, which meant that if it continued he wouldn't even have that to help his body sustain itself. To put it mildly, Dean and Sam were very, very worried about their angel.

"Have you checked the would today?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head, but stood. "No, probably need to change the bandage again though."

They turned back the lower part of the light sheet they had spread over Cas' constantly shivering form, and revealed his wounded leg. Sam grabbed the first aid kit they had left on the side table and started to cut the old bandage off with the small medical scissors. Dean winced as the wound was revealed. It looked like a snake bite, though the basilisk's fangs had been the size of pencils and the two puncture wounds were swollen and bright red around the site with black streaks of poison tracing up his veins. They were also leaking a nasty viscous fluid that Sam was now cleaning off with a fresh swatch of gauze.

"It's only getting worse, Sammy," Dean admitted.

Sam sighed and worked on spreading more antibiotic ointment onto the wound, even though it didn't seem to be doing anything. "I know. We'll find something that will work, Dean."

Dean stayed silent. Sure, he hoped they would too, but wondered if the time would come when they had to face the fact that Cas might not survive this.

The angel shifted slightly as Sam finished the new bandage and a vague whimper escaped his throat. Dean leaned over him instantly, holding his breath and waiting for the angel to open his eyes, but he didn't. He just tensed for a moment as if in pain before he slumped back to the bed, shuddering with the fever chills. Dean sighed heavily and grabbed the wet cloth they were keeping on the side table, reaching out to wipe the sweat from Cas' face and neck again. He could feel his heat from where he stood.

"I'm gonna get back to researching," Sam told him quietly as he replaced the first aid kit and gathered the soiled stuff to be burned. "I'll bring you some coffee."

"Bring me some books too, I may as well help," Dean said and Sam nodded.

They spent the rest of the day pouring over books when they weren't pouring coffee down their throat. Cas' fever spiked even higher than before and they had to forced him into another ice bath.

Dean eventually nodded off, pure exhaustion taking over as he was pouring over yet another tome with eyes that could barely focus anymore. Cas was cooler now at least, back to 105, but Dean knew that wouldn't last for long so he figured he would get his shuteye when he could.

He was startled awake when Sam burst into the room, holding a huge old book in his arms.

"Dean!" he said hurriedly, motioning with the book. "I think I may have found something."

"What?" Dean demanded, instantly siting up and grabbing the mug of cold coffee he had left sitting beside him.

Sam perched on the side of the bed and handed Dean the book. "This is an ancient book of druidic healing spells. Really heard to read, but this one here," he tapped the page as Dean squinted at the old English words, "is a healing and a cleansing potion that was used mainly to cure poisons, both of a natural and supernatural nature."

Hope flared inside Dean's chest before he could tamp it down, listening to the same in his brother's voice. He cleared his throat, taking a sip of the cold bitter coffee. "So how do you make it?"

"I'm going to have to track down some of the ingredients," Sam admitted. "But they shouldn't be too hard to find. It even says here that the potion is most potent when brewed under the moon of the Winter Solstice—which is right now!" Sam took the book back from Dean triumphantly. "I think this is our only shot."

"Let's do it then, it's not like we have any other options." He cast his gaze to the angel who stirred and moaned on the bed, a hand weakly clutching the sheet. "We could really use a Christmas miracle right about now."

"Yeah." Sam swallowed hard and nodded firmly. "Okay, I'll go find the stuff we need. Just… keep an eye on him."

Dean watched his brother hurry from the room with the book and turned back to Cas. He reached up to bathe his brow again, frowning deeper as he felt Cas' radiating heat. He was like a freaking space heater. At least Dean wouldn't freeze watching over him.

The next day was spent in mixing up the potion after Sam procured the items, and then they would have to leave it to steep over night in the light of the moon. The day after was Christmas Eve, but Dean was having a hard time feeling the Christmas spirit when his best friend was dying slowly right next to him.

The next morning at dawn, Sam went to fetch the potion and brought it carefully into Cas' room. Dean procured a cup, some cloths, and another bowl. Once everything was set up, the brothers looked at each other and nodded.

"Let's do it," Dean said.

Sam grabbed the cup and filled it with half of the potion. "Half is for him to drink, and the other half is to bathe the wound," he reiterated.

Dean nodded and sat on the side of the bed, slipping an arm under Cas' shoulders and positioning him so that he was resting against Dean's chest in an upright position so that he would hopefully be able to swallow the potion. Sam readied the cup as Dean steadied Cas' head.

"Okay, give it to him," the elder Winchester said.

Sam carefully put the cup to Cas' lips and tipped the contents into his mouth gently. Cas sputtered on the sudden intrusion of liquid, but Dean started talking to him, hoping he could be heard, and coaxed him to swallow. Cas must have at least known he wasn't in danger, because he eventually did swallow, and they continued the slow process until the potion was gone.

"Now we wash the wound," Sam stated, putting the cup aside. Dean was about to get up to help, but Sam motioned for him to stay where he was with a rueful expression. "You may want to keep a hold of him. The text says this isn't exactly a pleasant process."

Dean bit his lip, but stayed where he was as Sam readied for the second step. He unbound Cas' wound and placed the empty bowl under his leg, then he took a steadying breath and poured the rest of the potion over the wound.

Cas screamed and writhed in Dean's grip, causing the elder Winchester to have to hold him tighter. Sam wined but kept pouring until all the liquid was gone. Then he quickly gathered the solid ingredients left in the bowl and packed them into the wound before binding it all up with clean bandages.

By now Cas was whimpering and moaning pitifully and Dean winced in sympathy. He hoped this worked for all the pain Cas had to go through for it.

"Okay, that's all we can do," Sam said, cleaning up the stuff. "Now we just wait, I guess."

"Yeah," Dean muttered, carefully slipping from under Cas and laying him gently back against the bed before he started to wash the sweat off of him. He had a feeling the next few hours were not going to be fun.

As predicted, they weren't. Cas' fever went up even higher, and he tossed and moaned on the bed, but the brothers hesitated to do anything since they didn't want to undo the effects of the potion. It was a cleansing potion after all, and those were sometimes worse than the poisons themselves.

They took shifts watching over him as the hours to Christmas ticked by and Cas just seemed to get worse and worse. Dean wryly thought of all the things they had planned to do. Right now they should have been having pizza and watching classic Christmas movies, but instead, they were watching Cas suffering greatly as the poison was hopefully being purged from his system.

Around the tenth hour after they had given him the potion, he started vomiting, and he kept vomiting every fifteen minutes for the next two hours, though he never fully regained consciousness once, nor really seemed to be aware of anything other than his body's need to rid itself of whatever toxins were inside of it.

After that, he went quiet, and eerily still. The fever had gone down to 103 to Dean's relief, but if anything, Cas looked even worse. As night approached, he still hadn't so much as stirred. His pulse was weak, his breathing was shallow, and Dean feared that after everything, they might be losing him after all.

Sam reluctantly went to catch a couple hours sleep, promising to relieve Dean soon, but Dean wasn't about to leave Cas' side. His friend looked more dead than alive and he couldn't stand the thought of Cas slipping off without his knowledge.

Great first real Christmas in their home.

Dean looked over at the clock on the side table, seeing it was five minutes to midnight. Almost Christmas. He sighed heavily and turned his attention back to Cas. "You know, it's not like I really had any good memories of the holidays, but this was supposed to be our redo, and you had to go ruin it," he tried to force a smile, but couldn't make it. "I mean, you could have chosen any other time of year, but no, it had to be Christmas. We never do have any manner of luck, do we?"

Cas offered nothing, still unconscious.

"I mean, with all the other crap we have to put up with, is it too much to ask for a Christmas miracle? Just once?"

He bit his lip and then reached out to settle his hand over Cas' limp arm. "Just…don't die on me, Cas. You deserve better than that."

Midnight hit, and Dean watched the clock count out sixty seconds as he held his breath, still somehow waiting for his Christmas miracle. But the sixty seconds ended and then the second minute of Christmas started counting out and his heart sunk a little lower.

And then…

A moan started Dean out of his dark thoughts and he spun back toward the bed, seeing Cas stirring. He held his breath and his heart almost stopped as he saw the eyelids flicker.

"Cas?" he asked, barely hoping to believe it.

The angel's eyes slid all the way open, dull blue showing and finally fixing on Dean. "Dean," he croaked.

Dean broke into a grin and gripped Cas' hand tightly. "Yeah, buddy. Hey. How do you feel?"

Cas looked like he was searching for words. "Horrible." He finally settled on.

Dean chuckled, just glad to have his friend back in the land of the living. "Well, you've been fevered for five days and spent about two hours vomiting your guts up, so I think you're entitled."

"I—five days?" Cas rasped.

Dean went to grab a glass of water for him. "Yeah. You scared us, man."

He helped him drink and then went to fetch Sam who looked like he wanted to hug the angel, though wasn't sure whether Cas could handle it at the moment.

"I'm really glad you're awake, Cas," Sam said sincerely, his relief showing in every inch.

"Yeah, and just in time for Christmas too," Dean said with a small smile. "Looks like we got that Christmas miracle after all."

Cas attempted to smile, but he seemed even too exhausted for that. The brothers decided to let him sleep, and try to get some themselves, although Dean still stayed in the chair by Cas' bed in case he needed anything.

It wasn't the Christmas they had planned, but they still enjoyed it, and hauled Cas out to the couch so he could recuperate and watch Christmas movies with them—with the healing properties of Sam's eggnog which could cure any ill.

Overall, Dean decided as he toasted his brothers, it wasn't really a bad Christmas at all.

 


	9. The Mark of…Candy Cane?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically Dean gets hit with a Christmas Spirit curse and things just escalate.

Sam Winchester woke up slowly, actually feeling rested for once. He groaned and rolled over to check his clock and saw it was 7:30 in the morning. A little later than he usually got up, but they had been putting in a lot of hours the last few days hunting a ghost a couple towns over and Sam was glad to get some rest. For once he would really just like to relax on the holidays.

He sat up and yawned, then frowned, as he saw something very red and green resting at the foot of his bed. He reached down to pick it up and unfolded it to reveal a very, er, decorative Christmas sweater with jungle bells and mooses on it. He wasn't exactly sure what to make of that. Maybe he just needed some coffee.

He shuffled out of the room, shivering in the chill air and looked up to see Cas, already dressed, coming out of his room. It was what he was dressed in though that surprised Sam. From the waist down, he was just wearing the jeans that they had bought him since he became human, but above the waist he was adorned in an extremely garish Christmas sweater with a bright Christmas tree right in the middle of it.

"Good morning, Sam," Cas said.

"Uh, good morning, Cas," Sam said, then had to ask. "Um, did you buy these sweaters?"

Cas frowned and shook his head. "No, I assumed it was you or Dean. It is rather…colorful. I only wore it so I wouldn't offend anyone."

"Must me some prank Dean's pulling," Sam decided, wanting coffee even more now. He and Cas stepped out of the dormitory ward and into…

What could only be described as what would happen if a Christmas store vomited in the bunker. Christmas lights were strung around every inch of the bookshelves, some around the railing of the stairs. Some were accompanied by garlands that hung on the tops of bookshelves, and also were laid out in the middle of the tables with surprisingly tasteful holly berry displays. But what really caught Sam's eye was the giant Christmas tree that sat in one corner of the library. Even though the bunker was huge, the tree made the area seem incredibly small in comparison. Surrounding the tree were boxes of decorations and more lights, as if there wasn't already enough of those.

Cas stopped beside him with a confused stare. "What is all this?"

Sam still couldn't form words by the time Dean appeared—and then he was even more speechless. His brother was also wearing a garish Christmas sweater, but he also had on an apron with a gingerbread man on it and a rather unnerving grin on his face.

"Cas! Sammy, you're up!" he exclaimed.

"Dude," Sam finally got out. "What the hell is all this?"

Dean frowned as if Sam were stupid. "What do you mean? It's Christmas, Sammy. I just did some decorating."

"Some?" Sam asked. "Dude, you like, bought an entire Christmas store. How did you even fit all this stuff into the Impala? How did you decorate so fast?"

Dean shrugged as if it were no big deal. "You guys were asleep, I just went out on the supply run, saw the decorations and decided we should do Christmas this year." He frowned and pointed a spatula he had been carrying at Sam. "And you're not wearing your Christmas sweater. If you don't, you won't get any gingerbread pancakes."

"Gingerbread pancakes?" Sam asked before Dean went back into the kitchen and to the supposed pancakes. He looked over at Cas, slack-jawed and the ex-angel shared a look.

"I think we might have a problem," Cas said.

Sam nodded then retreated to his room to dress. He reluctantly pulled on the Christmas sweater but until he knew what was going on, he figured it was better off just going along with whatever Dean wanted. He really didn't know what this was, but one thing was sure. That wasn't his brother.

He met Cas in the kitchen where the ex-angel was sitting at the table, watching as Dean flipped pancakes on the stove. He plopped two onto plates and brought them over to Sam and Cas. Sam just stared down at his. They were shaped like gingerbread men. He didn't even know that was possible.

"Eat," Dean commanded, setting the syrup down. "They're delicious!"

Sam shared a look with Cas again, and then as Dean's back was turned, reached into his pocket for his flask of holy water and poured some into Dean's coffee. When Dean came back with his own pancakes and sat down, Sam and Cas held their breath as he sipped the coffee but without any adverse effects. Okay, so he wasn't possessed. That at least was a good thing, but that still left a plethora of options for them to work through. Shapeshifter being the next one, although why a shapeshifter would pretend to be a Christmas obsessed Dean he had no clue. They couldn't rule out any options yet though.

"So, I don't know about you, but I haven't gotten any Christmas shopping done yet," Dean told them, eating the pancakes with enthusiasm. Cas took a tentative bite, and then seemed to decide they weren't bad so Sam did the same. "I thought we could go into town today, to the mall or something, and do a little shopping."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked skeptically, after deciding that the gingerbread pancakes were actually really good. "I mean, tomorrow's Christmas Eve, everything is going to be a zoo."

"It'll be fun! Where's your Christmas spirit, Sammy?"

Sam snorted, wanting to comment that he never really had any, but Cas beat him to it.

"Dean, we are just slightly concerned. You're not acting exactly like yourself."

The elder Winchester frowned. "What do you mean? Can't I enjoy Christmas? There's no crime against it!"

"No, Dean, there's nothing wrong with it," Sam insisted quickly. "It's just you've never been this excited about Christmas before is all."

Dean shrugged and smiled. "Guess I just found the Christmas spirit this year."

Sam felt a niggling at the back of his mind at that, but shook himself. Maybe if they spent the day with Dean, they would be able to pinpoint what was wrong with him. "Okay, Dean. We'll go to the mall and shop. I guess it would be nice to have an actual Christmas this year."

Dean beamed and stuffed the rest of his pancake into his mouth. "Great! We leave in ten. And don't take off your Christmas sweaters!"

Sam grunted and turned to Cas balefully. "Well, I guess it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to us."

~~~~~~~~

He began to reevaluate that sentiment when they finally entered the mall, which, as he had feared, was swarming with last minute shoppers.

"This looks dangerous," Cas stated, shifting nervously in his garish Christmas sweater.

"Come on!" Dean commanded, striding forward as if he knew exactly what he was doing.

Sam bit back a protest and grabbed Cas' sleeve, forcing both of them through the throng after Dean. They almost ran into his back as he stopped quickly and turned around.

"Alright, you know the rules, we all go separate ways and no following or spying, got it?" Dean commanded, glaring at them.

"Sure, no problem," Sam said and Dean smiled and started making his way through the crazy shoppers again. Sam turned to Cas. "Let's follow him."

They trailed Dean to several stores, trying to figure out if he was doing anything weird, all the time watching for any potential supernatural baddies that might pop up. Since they still didn't know what was going on with Dean, they couldn't be too careful.

Eventually, though, they realized they had lost Dean. Sam and Cas stood among the mall kiosks and looked around.

"Where did he go?" Cas wondered. "He was right there a second ago."

"I know," Sam replied in exasperation and motioned for Cas to follow him. "Come on, let's—agh!"

They turned around, only to almost run into a very angry Dean, standing behind them with his arms crossed.

"Are you trying to spy on me to see what you're getting?" he demanded.

"Um, no," Sam tried, but Dean jabbed a finger into his chest.

"Well, scram!" the elder Winchester commanded.

Sam and Cas hurried away, casting furtive glances back at Dean until they realized he was doing the same thing. Then they stopped behind a pretzel stand, peeking back to find Dean had disappeared again. "Okay. That was close."

"Sam, do you think it's possible that nothing at all is wrong with Dean?" Cas inquired.

Sam entertained that notion only for a second, before shaking his head. "No, something is definitely up with him. He's just not…Dean."

"Then what do we do now?" Cas asked.

Sam shrugged. "Well, I guess since we're here we may as well go Christmas shopping. If Dean is so into it this year, we may as well attempt to enjoy ourselves as well."

He turned and saw that one of the jewelry kiosks, also had a display of decorative knives. One in particular caught Sam's eye; a hefty pocketknife with embossed silver handle. "Hold on, Cas," he said and asked the kiosk owner how much the knife was. Deciding he could afford it, Sam bought it for Dean. It had been a long time since he had actually gotten Dean a nice gift.

"It's silver too," he added. "Just in case."

Cas nodded in agreement and the two of them continued on their shopping venture. Sam didn't stop worrying about Dean and what he might be getting up to, but he at least tried to enjoy himself a little. At least he was tall enough to see over the plethora of people milling around.

Eventually, they ended up in the food court for lunch after Cas had found Dean a new robe so Sam didn't have to complain about the 'dead guy robe' he had found in the bunker when they first got there, and he also had something he was hiding from Sam. Sam had managed to buy Cas a new jacket in one of the department stores so he hoped the ex-angel wouldn't peek into the bag.

"I wonder if I should text Dean," Sam said.

Cas shook his head and pointed. "No need, there he is."

Dean came up to them with several bags and a smile on his face. "You guys get everything you need? I don't know about you but I would really like a hot chocolate."

Again, Sam wondered what had happened to his brother, but he smiled back. "Okay, we can get a hot chocolate on the way out."

"And when we get back, it's time to decorate the Christmas tree and start baking cookies!" Dean stated.

"Okay, sure," Sam agreed, casting a glance at Cas.

Once they got back to the bunker, they found Dean had also bought wrapping paper and bows during his Christmas shopping spree that morning so they were able to wrap their presents. Then they set about decorating the huge Christmas tree that Dean had somehow gotten into the bunker all by himself that morning.

"Isn't this fun? We've never gotten to do this before," Dean said with a happy smile as he and the others hung ornaments from the tree limbs.

Sam, despite the strangeness of his brother's current state, actually had to agree that this was actually pretty fun. "Yeah, it is," he admitted. "It's kinda nice to just get to relax and enjoy the holidays."

"Right?" Dean beamed before he went to plug the tree in and the lights illuminated it. "There. Perfect. Now we have something to put our gifts under!"

"Is that truly the only function for the Christmas tree?" Cas asked as he hung one of the last red balls up.

"Of course not, but it's the most important," Dean grinned and then clapped their shoulders. "Come on, let's go make some cookies, I have some great recipes I want to try!"

The rest of the day they spent laboring in the kitchen, making batch after batch of cookies in all shapes and forms. Sam and Cas tried to escape on several occasions, but Dean wouldn't let them go at all, always catching them if they tried to slip out. And they listened to Christmas music for hours during the cooking making and Sam had continuous hand cramps from all the decorating. It had been going on for almost five hours as the cookies kept piling up, and probably would have gone on longer if Sam hadn't been able to convince Dean that they should watch some Christmas movies. This, amazingly, Dean agreed to, and while they were watching The Christmas Story he thankfully conked out on the couch, obviously exhausted, and started snoring.

Sam and Cas tiptoed away from the couch and into the kitchen, which was covered wall to wall with cookies. In fact, Sam wasn't sure how Dean had gotten all the supplies to make them, they seemed to be endless. What could possibly have happened that morning at the store to cause this.

And then Sam felt really stupid. "The store," he groaned, slapping his forehead.

"What?" Cas asked.

"It has to be the store! Dean went there this morning and something must have happened to make him go insane like this. What if it's some kind of Christmas spirit hex?"

Cas pondered this. "That could be possible. But to what purpose? It doesn't seem necessarily to be a dangerous thing. At least not yet."

"I don't know," Sam said, musing more on the subject now. "But I think we need to go check it out first thing in the morning. Right now though, I really want some real food."

~~~~~~~

The next morning, Sam woke early and tried his best to get him and Cas out of the bunker without Dean noticing. However, his plan was in vain, for as soon as the two of them exited the dormitory wing Dean was on them with a fresh Christmas sweater and a renewed grin.

"Guys, where are your sweaters?" he demanded, his grin disappearing.

"Uh," Sam tried, but Dean was already running off to the other room, returning with a bag from which he produced an elf hat, which he promptly plopped onto Sam's head. He then did the same to Cas with a jingly Santa hat.

"Never mind, I got these instead. Come on, let's have some hot chocolate and Christmas cookies for breakfast."

Sam and Cas looked at each other before they were racing after Dean. "Dean, hey," Sam tried but Dean was singing "Jingle Bells" to himself off-key and Sam bit his lip, wondering how to approach this.

"Dean!" Cas tried. "You're not yourself!"

Dean stopped and glared at them. "Come on, guys, would you stop? Can't I just enjoy Christmas? Are you scrooges or something?"

"Dean, we're just wondering if something happened at the store yesterday," Sam tried as calmly as possible. "You've been…different ever since. Did you meet someone there?"

"We just want to make sure you're okay," Cas pleaded.

Dean put down the mugs he was carrying and glared at them. "You know what, scrooges get coal in their stockings. Now sit down and eat your cookies!"

"Dean, what if something is wrong? Wouldn't you want to know? I mean, what happens if this lasts until after Christmas?" Sam tried.

"That's it," Dean growled and left the room, coming back with a strand of lights. "I really didn't want to have to do this, Sammy, but…"

Sam didn't even have time to react, he was so surprised to find his brother pushing him into a chair and tying him up with Christmas lights. Cas followed and pretty soon, both of them were in the most festive bonds they had ever been in, with plates of cookies set in front of them. Dean picked up a gingerbread man and shoved it into Cas' mouth before the ex-angel could protest.

"There, eat your cookies. I'll untie you when you decide to embrace your Christmas spirit. Sammy, you too." Dean glowered at him, holding up another cookie.

"Dean, come on, you have to know you're not yourself," Sam pleaded, or tried to, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he too had a cookie shoved into it.

"You guys just don't want to celebrate Christmas with me," Dean grumbled. "Well, we're going to have a nice Christmas this year if I have to keep you tied to these chairs the whole time. Now, stay, I'll be back in a minute."

Sam wriggled instantly as Dean left the room, and cast a glance at Cas. "I think I may be able to get out."

"Good, I'll keep him distracted, while you get out and go to the store," Cas whispered as they both cast furtive glances toward the entrance to the kitchen.

Sam gave one last twist and pulled his arms free; after that he was able to untangle himself and stand up. "Just try to keep an eye on him. Don't let him do anything crazy."

"Just go!" Cas hissed as they could hear Dean coming back.

Sam hurried out the other entrance of the kitchen to the bunker's garage, hearing Dean call for him just as he closed the door behind him. He ran to the Impala and was away before Dean could come find him.

It was Christmas Eve and the store was busy with people buying last minute things for their Christmas dinners. Sam was determined to search the place top to bottom though, if it meant finding out what had happened to Dean.

Thankfully, it turned out that he didn't have to go that far.

His eye caught one of the cashiers, a young brunet woman, who was smiling at all the people, decked out in Christmas colors and even a Christmas hat. Sam edged closer to her, as he watched her talk to the people she was ringing up.

"I hope you have a wonderful holiday! Keep up your Christmas spirit!"

Sam continued to watch as a man who looked flustered and just about done with everyone being in his way grunted at the cashier's bubbly attitude. She frowned, anger flitting over her gaze. Sam watched as she turned away from the man, muttering something under her gaze as she picked up a candy cane, and then turned back to him with a smile and handed him the candy.

"I hope you have a fantastic Christmas," she said.

So it was a hex. Sam bit his lip and went to grab a couple groceries before he got into the woman's line. When he got up to her he leveled a gaze at her.

"I know you're a witch," he said, cutting to the chase. "You hexed my brother. I want you tell me how to fix him."

She looked slightly shocked, then indignant. "I'm not hurting anyone. I'm just giving them a little Christmas spirit! There's not enough of that. Everyone is just so worried about what they're getting for gifts that no one really sits back and enjoys the holidays anymore. Not the way they should be, with family and togetherness."

"Well, my brother is going insane. He tied me and our friend to a chair with Christmas lights and forced us to eat cookies. Whatever hex you used on him seems to be escalating, and it might get worse."

She bit her lip and then sighed. "Fine. I'll give you something to fix him, but I hope he learned his lesson."

"And please stop," Sam added. "I don't want to have to come after you. It's Christmas, after all."

She glared at him but nodded. She turned to pick up another candy cane and said a spell over it. It glowed for a second then stopped, and she handed it to Sam. "There. Give this to him and it should reverse the spell." Sam pocketed it and paid for his groceries, before the girl said, "Thanks."

Sam smiled at her. "Merry Christmas."

By the time he got back to the bunker, Cas was still tied to the chair and looked sick on the cookies that Dean kept shoving into his mouth. Sam's older brother looked up as he came in and glowered, while Cas looked relieved.

"Sammy, why did you run away?" Dean demanded.

Sam forced a smile. "Just wanted to do a little last minute shopping. Here, I got you this." He handed Dean the candy cane. "Eat it now."

Dean took the candy and with only slight hesitation, he ripped it open and popped it into his mouth. Sam held his breath and watched as he saw Dean suck on the candy cane a few times. He was about to turn back to Cas, when he stopped, and his eyes went glassy, before he blinked several times, and a confused expression came over him. He took the candy cane from his mouth and turned a bewildered expression toward Sam.

"Sam, what…?" he turned to Cas and his eyes blew wide. "Cas?" He hurriedly went to untie Cas who staggered to his feet, clutching his stomach and groaning.

"Did…did I do this?" Dean asked, looking between Sam and Cas, trying to figure out what was going on.

Cas put a hand on his shoulder with a small smile. "It wasn't your fault, Dean. You were under some spell."

"A witch at the store hexed you because I guess she thought you needed a little more Christmas spirit," Sam told his brother, watching him with concern. "How are you feeling?"

Dean looked around the room, plucked at his sweater and frowned at the hat Cas was wearing. "Well…kinda…empty. Why are there so many cookies?"

Sam huffed a laugh. "You were a cookie fiend yesterday. But you…you don't feel sick or anything?"

Dean shrugged. "No, just a little, I dunno, depressed, maybe."

Sam's heart sank and he realized that maybe he hadn't done his brother a favor after all. Even if Dean had been insane the last couple days, he had been happier than Sam had seen him in a long time. He smiled encouragingly. "Well, we still have all the Christmas decorations up and everything. Why don't we celebrate Christmas this year?"

"Yeah?" Dean asked, and he sounded rather hopeful, to Sam's surprise.

"Of course!" Sam told him.

"I too would like to celebrate it like the humans do, now that I am one," Cas agreed. "But I don't think I would like another cookie. My stomach is very unhappy."

Dean chuckled. "Sorry about that, Cas. Uh, what are we gonna do with all of these anyway?"

Sam thought and then smiled. "I actually have an idea."

The rest of the day, they spent taking boxes of cookies to the hospitals and old folks' homes in town. Everyone really enjoyed the cookies and Sam was glad to see his brother grow happier and happier as the day went on. Even without the hex, it seemed Dean had been able to find some Christmas spirit after all.

That night they watched more Christmas movies, introducing Cas to their favorites, and the next morning, they got up early and opened the gifts they had gotten each other. It was fun, like being a kid again, except better, at least in Sam's opinion. He looked over at Dean who was inspecting the new knife Sam had gotten him and his older brother looked up at him with a smile.

"Having a good Christmas, Dean?" Sam asked.

Dean grinned. "Yeah, little brother. This was great. Even if I had to get hexed to realize it, I think we should do Christmas every year."

"I agree," Sam nodded.

Cas put on an old Christmas record and the three of them just sat and enjoyed the day as Christmas should be enjoyed. With family.

 


	10. How to Shop for a Winchester

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel shops for Christmas presents.

Castiel had become used to a lot of human customs since his time on earth, and especially thanks to his time with the Winchesters. The celebration of holidays and the traditions that went along with them was one of those things. Sam and Dean had never really been traditional with holiday celebration considering they grew up on the road, and usually had their own methods of celebrating—like crashing at a hotel with Boston Market on Thanksgiving and watching the football game, and Dean's long nights on Valentine's Day where he tried to make it a point to leave no lady lonely. Christmas wasn't much different, but they still did what they could, depending on where they were. Usually it was quite a bit like their Thanksgivings, except with the added exchange of gifts purchased last minute at a gas station, but this year, they had the bunker, and Dean suggested they do a proper Christmas and invited Castiel to join them so he could experience the human traditions first hand.

But that created several quandaries for Castiel. The exchange of gifts was customary, but he was not practiced with purchasing gifts at all so he would need to do a lot of thinking before he figured out what to get Sam and Dean for Christmas gifts.

First he wondered if he was supposed to pick up something random like they usually did—shaving cream or publications like Busty Asian Beauties—but since Dean had said they would have a 'proper' Christmas that year, Castiel figured that meant they would give each other 'proper' gifts as well. So, he would have to decide what to do about that.

Neither of the brothers were exactly easy to shop for. Castiel realized that soon enough as he looked at generic items on the internet to get ideas, and none of them seemed like something Sam or Dean would want or could use. So instead, he decided to go to the nearest mall and look for something there. Surely a place with so many stores would have something he could get for the brothers.

It was quite busy and loud with other people doing last minute shopping and he found it a bit hard to concentrate but eventually he was able to tune everyone out and just look around.

He first went to the bookstore, thinking he could find something for Sam there. There was also music, but he didn't see any of the small square tapes Dean kept in the Impala, so he figured Dean probably wouldn't like any of the music to be bought there. He wasn't really sure what books Sam might like or might have already read either. Castiel never had much time to read so he had no recommendations, and browsing the so-called 'popular titles' he didn't think something called 'The Twilight Saga' sounded like anything Sam would enjoy reading. Therefor he passed up the bookstore and went further into the mall to see what other options there were.

He found a department store, which had a lot of clothing options. Both brothers wore an inordinate amount of plaid flannel and Castiel knew if he were to get them more it would at least be appreciated, but perhaps that was a little dull. They had band shirts that Dean would probably like, as Castiel had seen him wear a few old ones while he worked on his car, but Dean was rather critical of music, and if Castiel got the wrong one, Dean probably wouldn't like it, so he passed on that option as well.

He could always get them useful gifts, he supposed, but wasn't sure what they needed. The bunker had quite a lot of everyday stuff in it, and Sam and Dean always packed light for the road, so anything else, even if it were useful, probably wouldn't really be appreciated.

Weapons were likewise out. They had their favorite guns and knives, plus, all the other things that the Men of Letters had locked away in the bunker, and could use nothing else Castiel could possibly find that normal human consumers could buy.

He supposed there were always edible things; both brothers, especially Dean, liked to eat. But Sam liked salads, and Dean liked hamburgers and pie, and Castiel didn't think any of those things could be easily wrapped and distributed several days after the purchase date while still retaining their integrity.

As he continued to wander through the mall he felt his options waning, and still no ideas coming to him. Perhaps he should just get them the plaid shirts; they would at least appreciate those, he figured.

But then he was walking by a booth in the middle of the mall that had specialty handmade journals on display. Castiel stopped to look at them. They were nicely made, and some were even manly enough to his eye to suit even Dean Winchester. Journals were an important part of a hunter's life and to his recollection neither brother truly kept one like their father or Bobby Singer had. And now that they had found out they were Legacies to the Men of Letters, it was only proper that they should record their own hunts and findings for posterity sake.

Castiel went to talk to the man selling the journals and chose two sturdy, plain leather ones that could have more pages added to them if needed, and then had the man emboss the brothers' initials on each one so they wouldn't get them mixed up. Happy, and satisfied with his choice of gift, Castiel paid the man and then stopped on the way out of the mall to let the little girls at the wrapping booth wrap them for him for a few more dollars to charity. He hoped Sam and Dean would enjoy these gifts.

When Christmas finally came, they convened at the bunker to celebrate together and Castiel surprised the brothers by adding his gifts to the small pile of presents.

"Cas, you didn't have to get us gifts," Sam said.

"But that's a Christmas tradition between friends and family," Castiel insisted.

Dean shrugged. "Well, I guess we did say we were doing Christmas right. And we did get you something too, Cas."

"You did?" the angel asked, genuinely surprised.

"Of course," Sam said. "Didn't you just say its tradition between friends and family?"

Castiel felt a warmth in his chest that his feeling for the brothers were reciprocated, and settled down in a chair in the cozy den they had made out of one end of the library. "What do we do now?" he asked.

"Well, first, some eggnog," Dean told him, standing up and dishing out three cups from the bowl sitting on the table. "Watch out, it has some bite," he cautioned, as he sat down on the couch with Sam. "Then we relax, and do whatever we want. We can open presents, or we can watch Christmas movies, and later we're going to attempt to make a pizza, which will be our new tradition."

"If it comes out," Sam added blandly.

Dean shot him a good representation of Sam's famous bitchface. "Hey, have a little faith. Christmas is the time for miracles."

"Well, it's gonna take one," Sam smirked at his brother and Dean made a rude gesture.

"Perhaps we should open the gifts first," Castiel said, cutting in before the sibling rivalry took off.

"Awesome," Dean grinned and Castiel stood to retrieve his gifts, handing them to the brothers.

"These are for you," he said and sat back, anxiously watching the brothers open the gifts and hoping they would like them.

As the paper fell away the brothers looked appreciatively at the journals.

"Cas, this is really nice," Sam told him sincerely. "I've been meaning to get a journal."

"I thought you should have them now that you are Men of Letters," Castiel told them.

"Thanks, buddy," Dean grinned. "I guess I gotta learn to write stuff down now."

Castiel was happy that they had liked the gifts. It seemed he'd finally gotten a human custom correct.

"I'm glad you like them. You are very hard to shop for," he told them.

The Winchesters laughed and Dean dished up more eggnog. "Well, I think you did a good job for your first gift-shopping experience." He held up his cup. "Merry Christmas, bros."

Castiel and Sam smiled and held up their glasses in turn. "Merry Christmas," they repeated.


	11. Christmas Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel visits Claire for Christmas

Castiel looked out the window of the Impala as Dean pulled into the driveway belonging to Jody Mills. A slight nervousness had entered him as he thought about seeing Claire again. The week before, Jody had called and asked if they would like to join her and the girls for the holidays. Sam had Dean had instantly accepted, probably looking forward to a home cooked Christmas dinner; plus Mary was still taking some time for herself so she probably wouldn't be joining them at the bunker for holiday celebrations. Castiel hadn't seen any reason to refuse so he had gone along. Now he was beginning to regret his decision.

It wasn't that he didn't want to see Claire, he really did in fact, especially when they weren't running from something, or had other problems to complicate things. It was just that being around her was always going to be slightly awkward, even if they were on much better terms now than they had been before. He still wore her father's body, and had been the one to get him killed, and now he had also failed to protect her mother as well just when Claire had found her again. In fact, this would be the first Christmas Claire was spending with her mother dead. Castiel had debated on the drive to Sioux Falls whether his being there would only make everything worse.

"Cas, hey, you coming?"

Castiel looked up in surprise to see Dean had pulled to a stop and had opened his door to peek in at him. He shook himself and nodded. "Of course."

Dean gave him a look but stepped back so the angel could exit the car and follow Sam and Dean toward the door.

Sam rang the bell and it was opened soon after by Jody who greeted them with a smile and embraced the brothers in turn before glancing at Castiel.

"Hey, boys, how have you been?" she asked.

"Oh, the usual," Dean said with a grin. "Not dead, though, so that's a good thing."

Jody shook her head and turned to the angel again. "This must be Castiel."

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Forgot you two haven't met," Dean said and pushed the angel forward. "Cas, this is Jody."

The woman smiled and Castiel shook her hand, trying his best to return the smile. "It's good to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you," Jody told him.

"You as well," Castiel replied. "I…never got to thank you for taking Claire in."

Jody shrugged. "It's no problem. I like having kids around the house even if they can be pains of the ass at times."

Sam chuckled. "So how are the girls?"

"They're fine," Jody said. "Alex actually decided to go off to some ski lodge with a couple friends from school last minute so it will just be us and Claire." She led them into the kitchen where she poured them each a cup of hot coffee. "I'm actually glad you came," she lowered her voice. "I think Claire's feeling a little out of place here. She hasn't really been warming up to the holiday spirit, if you know what I mean. But at least she hasn't been going off hunting anymore."

Castiel felt a slight wave of guilt wash over him, unable to help feeling responsible for that. He hoped his presence wouldn't make Claire feel even worse.

"That's understandable," Sam said quietly. "She's gone through a lot and being as independent as she is, she probably doesn't want to feel like a burden."

Castiel could actually understand that quite a bit. That was how he felt most of the time around the Winchesters, even though he knew deep down they didn't view him as a burden. It could be hard to convince yourself of that though.

"Well, I've tried my best to make sure that wasn't the case, but I was worried about the same thing," Jody said with a shrug. "I guess the best thing we can do is just make sure she feels welcome and that she joins in on the holiday fun."

"Well, we're not exactly the best roll models since we spent our life on the road, but Sam does make a mean eggnog—for anyone over twenty-one," Dean said, grinning at his brother who shot him a bitchface.

"Well, we may need it," Jody said, then motioned them forward. "Come on, I'll show you the guest room. You'll have the flip for the bed."

"I don't require sleep so I'll be perfectly fine on the couch," Castiel spoke up.

"It's probably to be preferred above the air mattress," Jody told him. "But with the girls staying here now I lost two of my guest rooms."

"Is Claire home?" Castiel asked tentatively.

"She's in her room, probably with headphones on," Jody said. "You're welcome to go try to get her to come out for supper, which will be ready in fifteen minutes."

"Perhaps it's best if I…" Castiel tried but Sam smiled at him and nodded.

"Go on, Cas. We'll see you in a minute." He added an encouraging look and Castiel decided his cowardice was stupid. After all, it was just talking to a teenage girl. She certainly wasn't the most frightening thing he had ever faced.

"Alright," he braced himself and went down the hall to the room Jody had pointed to. He stopped and hesitated only a moment before he rapped on the door with a knuckle. "Claire? It's Castiel."

There was nothing for a couple seconds, but then the door was opened and Claire stood on the other side, wearing old jeans and a red sweater and looking slightly melancholy. She did try to smile at the angel though.

"Hey," she said. "I heard you come in."

Castiel returned the smile. "Yes, we just got here. How are you?"

Claire shrugged. "I'm fine. You?"

Castiel found himself returning the slightly awkward shrug. "Fine."

"The usual then," Claire said with a touch of wryness, biting her lip before she stepped back. "You can sit down for a minute, until dinner's ready, if you want."

Castiel was surprised by the invitation, but took it all the same, sitting on the desk chair in the sparse room. He had the vague thought that it looked rather like his own back at the bunker. No real personal affects, just a living space.

"Are you…enjoying it here with Jody and Alex?" he asked.

Claire shrugged. "Jody's cool. Alex…we get on okay I guess. Most of the time. Better now than before." She sat on the bed across from him and upset something that had been sitting there. Castiel saw a brief glimpse of it and realized it was a picture of a young Claire and her parents at Christmas, sitting in front of their decorated tree. Claire was holding a slightly misshapen gingerbread man that she looked like she was about to hang as a final piece on the tree. Before Cas could look at it more closely or ask about it, Claire picked it up and put it facedown on the side table. Castiel quickly adverted his gaze to the contents of her desk where he could see a collection of lore books.

"Oh, I've been doing a little research," Claire shrugged hurriedly. "I'm not really hunting anymore; Just trying to figure out what's really out there."

"You may wish you hadn't," Castiel said.

"Maybe, but it makes me feel better to know about that stuff. How to kill it. Just in case something does come along."

Castiel watched her closely, but decided not to comment on that. He really didn't want Claire to get into hunting. It was too dangerous of a life, but he could also understand her need for knowledge. Especially after what happened to her parents.

She looked over at the clock and stood up. "We should probably get down for supper. Sam and Dean can really put it away."

Castiel smiled. "Yes, they can."

He wasn't entirely disheartened with his discussion with Claire, but he could tell that something was going on with her. Thankfully it didn't seem to be directed at him, so maybe he would be able to do something about it.

That night after everyone else had gone off to sleep, he sat on the couch contemplating, as he recalled the picture he had seen Claire try to hide. He thought he might have had vague recollections from Jimmy about that picture; could see him and a very young Claire making the gingerbread man out of clay and plastic jewels because she insisted she wanted one that would last for more than a year. Castiel smiled slightly and delved deeper into Jimmy's memories that he had kept locked away for years.

While he could obviously no longer access Jimmy's memories directly since his soul was in heaven now and no longer part of the vessel, Castiel still remembered what he had seen from the man when he and Jimmy were still sharing space. He weeded through the memories until he saw more from Christmastime. One was of Jimmy eating the holiday cookies Claire had left out so he could convince her that Santa had enjoyed them. Another was of Claire's joy on Christmas morning opening the presents and finding exactly what she had wanted within. Then there was the one of them decorating the tree together as a family, and when they had put all the other ornaments on, Jimmy lifted Claire so she could reach the top and put the star up there, slightly crooked, but in a charming way.

There were dozens of memories he pulled up, telling him that Christmastime at the Novak household had always been a joyous occasion, since Jimmy had held on to a lot of those memories. It would make sense that Claire would be feeling slightly melancholy now around the holidays, especially when she had no family left to share them with.

But even if she didn't have blood family, she still had people who cared about her, and Castiel of all people knew how much that could mean to someone. He was determined to help Claire have a happy Christmas again.

~~~~~~~~

The next morning, when he heard Jody get up and head to the kitchen to make coffee, he went to join her, clearing his throat as he entered the kitchen. She looked up and offered a tired smile.

"Hey Castiel, want some coffee?"

"Thank you, yes," the angel replied and the two of them sat down at the kitchen table to enjoy the hot brew. Castiel waited until Jody had gotten several sips—something he had learned to do with Sam and especially Dean—before he broached the subject that he had been musing on all night.

"I was thinking of ways to maybe help cheer Claire up for the holidays," he told the sheriff as he cupped his hands around his mug and looked into the dark liquid. "I wondered if perhaps the Novaks had anything left from their house? Perhaps a storage container somewhere? I was hoping to find some of their old holiday things. I thought as a law enforcement officer, you might know how to go about doing that."

Jody drank some more coffee with a thoughtful expression. "I should be able to find out for you. Though considering how long it's been since Claire's family has lived in their home, or had any financial ties to anything, any storage container might be long gone by now."

Castiel felt disappointment wash over him and Jody seemed to see it because she offered a smile. "But I'll see what I can do. Who knows? We might get lucky with a Christmas miracle."

Castiel smiled and Jody glanced across the table at him. "I appreciate you trying to help Claire, Castiel. It hasn't always been easy, and I know she's still having a hard time adjusting, even though she's doing better now than she was at first."

"I'm always afraid I'll make things worse for her," Castiel confessed.

"I don't think you need to worry about that. Being here for Claire is a good thing. She's been abandoned by a lot of people in her life; I think if you stayed away that would do more harm than good."

Castiel mulled that over in his head and decided that was probably true. By that time, Sam and Dean were awake and heading for the coffee pot and Jody went to make something for breakfast.

Jody had to leave before they finished eating. "Gotta go into work today. You guys do what you want, and Castiel, I'll call you if I find anything out."

Sam and Dean turned to him questioningly. "What's all that about?" Dean asked.

Castiel shrugged and checked to make sure Claire wasn't up yet. "It's just something I was trying to do for Claire. To cheer her up."

Sam smiled. "That's good, Cas. Let us know if you need any help."

"In the meantime," Dean said, as he stood and cleared his dishes from the table. "I think we should do a little Christmas shopping today. Maybe we'll see if Claire wants to come along."

Castiel nodded, and they spent the morning in town, finding little gifts for each other. Castiel really wasn't sure what Claire might like. Sam and Dean were a little easier since he was with them all the time, but he had no idea what a teenage girl wanted. Perhaps he would ask Jody later if finding the Novaks' things didn't work out.

It was around the time they stopped for lunch that Castiel got a call from Jody, however.

"Hey, Castiel, guess what? I found out that the Novaks did have a storage container that's supposedly still untouched."

Castiel smiled. Now he just hoped that it contained what he was looking for. "Thank you, can you text me the address?"

After Jody sent the address, Castiel turned to Dean and asked quietly, "Could you come with me to Illinois?"

Dean's eyes widened but he nodded. "Sure, Cas, what are we doing?"

"I'll tell you on the way," Castiel said, glancing over at Claire who was talking to Sam. He really hoped to make sure she had a good Christmas this year.

~~~~~~~~

It was a long drive there and back, but Castiel was feeling satisfied with the stuff he and Dean had pulled out of the storage container. Quite a lot of it had been Claire's old baby things, and other objects no longer needed, but there were several boxes dedicated to Christmas decorations and they had loaded all of those into the Impala to set off back to South Dakota.

"Do you think this will make Claire happy?" Castiel asked Dean.

"Yeah, Cas, I think so," Dean replied with a smile. "I mean, Sammy and I never really had traditions or anything like that, but I bet if we had, it would make us feel right at home to see all the old stuff again, and do things like we used to."

"I just hope it doesn't bring back painful memories instead," Castiel worried, looking out the window at the wintery landscape.

"Dude, don't worry. I'm sure it will work out great," Dean assured him.

But that didn't stop Castiel's stomach from knotting up as they pulled back up to Jody's house. They had driven all night to get back the morning of Christmas Eve and Sam and Claire came out to meet them. They hadn't told either of them why they had left so suddenly and the two had curious expressions on their faces.

"What took you guys so long?" Sam asked, frowning as Dean opened the trunk and he and Cas started lifting out the boxes. The angel self-consciously approached Claire and smiled.

"Um, Claire, I have something for you."

"Oh yeah?" she asked, eyes curious as she watched Castiel and Dean bring the boxes inside and set them on the kitchen table. "What is all this stuff?"

Castiel reached into his coat pocket first and pulled out the clay gingerbread man from the picture. He had found this looking through the boxes, and tucked it away safely. Claire's eyes blew wide as he placed it in her hands. "I, um, I know it must be hard to have Christmas celebrations without your family, so I thought I would bring some of your old things here."

"But I didn't…" Claire sputtered. "I thought it was all gone."

"Nope, just stuffed into a storage container," Dean told her.

Claire looked up at Castiel again, and his anxiety washed away as he saw the gratitude and surprise shining in her eyes. "Thank you, Castiel. This…this actually means a lot."

He smiled sheepishly. "Did I…do this right?"

She grinned and surprised him with a hug. "Yeah, you did it right."

Castiel smiled and wrapped his arms around her in return as Sam and Dean looked on with happy expressions. Dean cleared his throat once Claire pulled away though.

"Well, tomorrow is Christmas so we should probably get cracking on this decorating, right?" he said.

"Yeah," Claire agreed. "Let's see what we have in here."

The four of them delved into the boxes and pulled out the Novaks' memories. Many of them, Castiel hadn't realized he knew from Jimmy, but he recalled snippets of happy times as certain items were revealed and could tell that Claire had similar memories from watching her reactions during the unboxing. Jody had already put up her own decorations, but the things from the Novaks made nice additions, especially some of the ornaments that had obviously been made by Claire.

"Ha, these are awful," she laughed as she pulled several of them out for inspection.

Castiel smiled. "But your parents thought they were beautiful," he said assuredly.

A slight wave of sadness washed over Claire's face, but she smiled in its wake and gently hung the ornaments on the tree. "Yeah, I guess they probably did."

Once they were done decorating, they braked for some hot chocolate.

"What other traditions did you have?" Castiel asked Claire.

She thought a moment. "Well, I remember my mom and I always made a gingerbread house."

"We'll have to make one of those, then," Castiel said. "Though, I'm not exactly sure how to go about it."

The others laughed and Sam looked online for some recipes and tips and they spent the afternoon baking and assembling their very own gingerbread house with gingerbread occupants. Claire took over the decorating of the people and made one for each of them and Jody—until Dean got ahold of the frosting and gave Sam's cookie 'girl hair' and then things kind of dissolved. Their gingerbread house wouldn't win any awards, but it had been fun to make anyway, and Castiel was happy to see that Claire seemed to be enjoying herself, much brighter than she had been when they got there.

They had just barely cleaned up the mess by the time Jody got there.

"Hey, looks like you all had a fun day," she exclaimed and smiled. "Who wants to help me with supper?"

She caught Castiel as Claire followed Sam and Dean into the kitchen to obediently wash their hands. "I think your idea worked, I haven't seen her that happy in a long time." She smiled. "Thank you, Castiel."

He smiled back. "I'm just glad it did."

Jody made roast chicken with all the fixings that night for their Christmas Eve supper and they stayed up late talking and watching Christmas movies and drinking eggnog, until Jody shooed them off to bed.

"Alright, go on, Santa won't come if you don't go to bed."

Claire and Dean rolled their eyes but everyone was tired anyway. Claire stayed a second after the others left to talk to Castiel as he began to make himself comfortable on the couch for the night.

"Thanks for this," she said with a small shy smile. "This is already the best Christmas I've had in years."

Castiel smiled back at her. "I'm glad you're happy, Claire."

He watched her head to bed, and then sat and took in the warm lights of the Christmas tree and the still smoldering fire in the grate. He too, felt more content than he had in a long while.

The Next morning everyone was up early like they were kids again, and gathering in the living room around the Christmas tree. Dean stoked up the fire and Jody grumbled good naturedly and went to make the coffee as everyone set about rattling the presents from each other; Sam and Dean having a competition to see who could guess more until Claire told them that was cheating.

"Alright, dig in, kids," Jody said as she handed out mugs of coffee and sat down next to Castiel on the couch to watch.

There were several minutes of happy exclamations as presents were handed out and opened, and Castiel found himself smiling as he watched the happy chaos.

"Hey, Castiel, you just gonna sit there?" Claire asked him. "Come on."

Castiel smiled and joined the others around the tree. Claire surprised him with a gift. "This is from me," she told him.

Castiel opened the box to reveal two new ties, both of different colors. He smiled.

"I thought you needed more variety," Claire told him.

"Thank you, Claire," Castiel said.

They had a nice day, just enjoying each other's company, and as it wound down and Dean turned on the TV to find some more Christmas movies, Castiel found Claire sitting beside him on the couch, smiling up at him.

"I'm glad you came, Castiel," she told him. "And thanks again. This was a great Christmas."

"I'm glad I came too," he said and was somewhat surprised when Claire settled against his side, resting her head on his shoulder. He tentatively put his arm around her and then settled in to watch the movie Dean had found.

Claire's parents may have been gone now, but Castiel would be her family if she would have him. He didn't think he would mind that at all.


	12. Trapped in a Winter Wonderland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie visits the boys for Christmas but when she accidentally finds a cursed snow globe in the bunker they end up getting trapped inside of it

"Okay, guys, I am determined to make this the bestest Christmas ever!"

Sam, Dean and Castiel stared at the vivacious redhead as she was practically bounding off the walls of the bunker. They had been surprised when Charlie had shown up only a couple days before Christmas with a box of presents and Christmas lights, asking them to go Christmas tree shopping with her because "they would have a Christmas tree in the bunker or she wasn't staying". They hadn't been planning on doing much for Christmas that year at all besides trying to relax, but now that Charlie was there, they couldn't help but feel a little of the holiday spirit that she was practically exuding.

"I'm so glad you guys were here and not off hunting something across the country, I haven't had anyone to celebrate Christmas with in…forever," Charlie said, finally coming to a stop in front of them with her hands on her hips. "This is going to be awesome."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Dean said uncertainly. "But what exactly do you have planned?"

Charlie huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Duh, Christmas stuff! A tree for starters, and lights and Christmas cookies, and presents!"

"Tomorrow's Christmas Eve," Sam said slowly.

"Yeah, so let's get to work!" Charlie insisted. "Come on, I saw a Christmas tree stand on the way here, can't we go get one?"

Even though Charlie had never had siblings, she certainly had perfected the puppy eyes, and Dean groaned. "Fine, let's go. But we're taking your car because I ain't putting a tree on top of Baby."

"Whatever, let's just go before they sell out!" Charlie insisted, already running out the door.

Dean glanced back at Sam and Cas. "I'll go with her to get the tree, you two run to the store to pick up the other stuff on her list," he said.

They nodded and they all went to get their respective Christmas things, reconvening back at the bunker with lightened spirits. Even Dean had to admit that having Charlie around for the holidays would probably make it the happiest Christmas they'd had—ever.

Of course, he started to rethink that when he and Sam had to wrestle the tree into place in one corner of the library while Cas smartly stayed out of the way and Charlie gave them directions.

"A little more to the right, no, my right! Okay, that's perfect!"

Dean groaned as he straightened, brushing needles out of his hair and inspecting the scratches on his hands. "Well, whether it is or not, it's staying there now."

"Okay, decorating time!" Charlie said. "Did you get some?"

Cas pointed to a bag on the table. "Sam and I got some lights and a few ball ornaments."

Charlie's face fell as she examined the contents of the bag. "Guys, this will hardly cover half the tree!"

"Well we didn't think you'd get a giant," Sam told her.

"You know, I bet the Men of Letters have some Christmas decorations tucked away in one of these storage rooms," Charlie mused.

"Uh, that may not be such a good idea," Sam said.

"Why not? They must have had Christmas too," Charlie insisted. "Come on, Castiel, we'll go check it out."

Cas hurried after her as Dean watched them go, opening his mouth to protest, but they were already gone. The tree picked that moment to fall into his back and nearly knock him to his hands and knees. He straightened, cursing, as he and Sam wrestled it back into place.

"See if you can figure this out. I'm going to go make sure they don't open any of the curse boxes," Dean said.

"Thanks," Sam grunted as he continued to wrestle with the tree.

Dean hurried deeper into the bunker toward the storage rooms and found Charlie and Cas in one of the rooms, already going through boxes.

"Find anything?" he asked.

"Not yet," Charlie replied, peeking into another one. "Most of this stuff is just full of old paperwork."

"Hold on, I think I found a box of ornaments," Cas said, pulling the box he found down for closer inspection. Charlie hurried over and opened it, revealing some ancient strings of lights and glass balls and ugly old garlands with tinsel still stuck to them. Dean wrinkled his nose.

"Yes! Lots of old stuff in here, these should work great," she said, and stood on tiptoe to see onto the shelf Cas had found the box on. "Hey, there's something else up there, pull that down, too Castiel."

The angel did so and Dean just barely saw the smaller box before it was knocked off the shelf with the other box and tumbled down, crashing to the floor, almost on Charlie's foot. She yelped and jumped back as Dean hurried forward too late to catch it.

"Sorry," Cas said. "I didn't see it, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Charlie assured him with a smile before crouching to inspect the box that had fallen. "I wonder what this is?"

"Hold on, you may not want to open that," Dean warned, leaning over to see the box Charlie was now picking up.

"It's already open," she said, opening the lid that must have popped in the fall. She gasped. "Oh! This is awesome!" She pulled out a very elaborate snow globe with an ornate, gold base, and a very detailed winter village inside, nestled in the snow. "It's beautiful!" she exclaimed as she shook it to make it snow on the village.

"It must have belonged to one of the Men of Letters," Cas commented as he set the box of ornaments aside to give the globe a closer look. "It is very detailed."

"I wonder what it was doing up there," Charlie mused, turning it over to look at the bottom. She smiled as she found a little crank. "Hey, I think it's a music box!"

Before any of them could think about possible side effects, Charlie turned the crank. But instead of a tinkling tune starting as they expected, the snow globe started to glow.

"Um…" Charlie started. "Is it supposed to do that?"

"Guys, I think we should get out of here," Dean said quickly.

Charlie hurriedly put the snow globe down and stood up, but the glow was getting brighter by the second and they had to cover their eyes as it encompassed them in a blinding flash. Charlie shrieked and Dean reached out to her before he felt something tug on him and he felt a sudden weightless sensation before complete disorientation took over.

He thought he might have blacked out after that, for the next thing he was aware of was that the weightlessness was gone and he was slamming into something slightly padded and very cold. He groaned, blinking something from his eyes, and struggling to sit upright to take stock of what had happened.

His eyes popped open.

He was no longer in the closet in the bunker, in fact he was no longer inside at all. He was lying somewhere in the snow outside of some quaint little village.

"What the hell?" he mumbled.

He heard groans to his left and turned to see Cas and Charlie sitting up too, likewise befuddled. He might have thought Cas had zapped them somewhere to avoid injury, but he couldn't fly anymore.

"What happened?" Cas asked, looking around with confusion.

"I have no freakin' clue," Dean muttered, trying to force himself to his feet.

"Um, guys," Charlie spoke up tentatively as she scrambled to her feet with Cas giving her a hand. She pointed to the village. "Does that look familiar to you?"

"No, why would…" Dean squinted at the village and then suddenly turned around to see what was behind them. He saw mostly darkness, but there was a sort of shimmery dome barrier as well. He struggled through the snow toward it and walked right into it with an impact that made him sit down hard in the snow.

"Dean!" Charlie called as she and Cas hurried over and helped him to his feet. He stood and slammed a hand into the solid barrier several times before he could convince himself of what he was seeing.

"This is very strange," Cas said.

"Are we…" Charlie started and then gulped. "Um, are we stuck in the…snow globe?"

Dean slammed his fist against the glass one last time. "Yeah. It looks like it." Now how the hell were they going to get out of there? "Crap."

~~~~~~~~

Sam heard a muffled crash from deeper in the bunker and shook his head, still trying to get the tree to stand upright. He finally managed to by making an impromptu base around the bottom, and he stepped back carefully, hoping it would hold this time. It did and he smiled in satisfaction. Now he should probably go help the others.

As he was making his way back toward the storage closets though, he heard more noise accompanied by Charlie shrieking and he frowned and hurried down the hall, hoping nothing was wrong.

"Guys?" he called, looking into the rooms as he passed them but frowning when he saw that none of them were occupied. One of the rooms did have an open box of ornaments though and Sam went inside to pick it up, wondering if they had already gone to look in another part of the bunker. But something seemed off. "Dean, Cas, Charlie?" he called again, but there were still no replies.

He frowned deeper and then nudged something with his toe. He looked down and saw a snow globe sitting on the floor.

"Weird," he muttered to himself and bent to pick it up as he went back out to the library to see if the others had ended up out there again. "Guys?"

~~~~~~~~

"Let's go to the village," Charlie suggested. "Maybe there's a way to get out of here there."

Dean muttered under his breath. "I don't know why there would be. It's not a real village, it's made of plaster or something."

"But the snow is real," Charlie said, reaching down and scooping up a handful of it before forming s snowball. "Or at least it feels real." She tossed it at Cas and it splattered on his coat.

The angel frowned, brushing the snow from himself. "It does seem to be enchanted, so perhaps when you're inside it does feel real. Besides, a typical snow globe has water in it, and we're not submerged while we're inside, so it would only stand to reason there is some kind of spell surrounding it."

"Ya think?" Dean quipped.

"And I'm cold," Charlie said, hugging herself and shivering. None of them were dressed warmly since they had just been in the bunker previously, certainly not prepared for cold weather. "Maybe there's a fire in one of the houses."

Dean sighed, but had to admit they didn't really have any better options. "Alright, we may as well try to get warm while we figure out how to get out of here. This is exactly what I was afraid of."

"Sorry," Charlie said quietly. "I didn't exactly expect a snow globe to be a dangerous cursed object."

"Well, thankfully it doesn't seem to be too dangerous. Yet," Dean muttered, trying not to make Charlie feel too bad. It wasn't like he and Sam hadn't made a million mistakes like that in the past. He still remembered Sam's adventure with the cursed rabbit's foot.

Cas was shrugging out of his coat. "Here, this will keep you warm for now," he said, wrapping it around Charlie's shoulders.

"But you'll get cold too!" she protested.

Cas smiled. "I don't get cold like humans do. I'll be fine."

"Oh, then thanks," Charlie smiled and put her arms through the sleeves, the coat dwarfing her.

"Alright, let's go," Dean said, trying to ignore his own chill skin. He rolled the sleeves of his flannel shirt down but it didn't do much.

They had only taken a few steps toward the village when the ground started rumbling. They stopped, looking around in alarm, before Dean looked beyond the glass and spotted a huge figure looming over them.

"Guys?" a muffled giant voice called.

"It's Sam," Cas supplied.

"Hey, maybe he'll be able to get us out of here!" Charlie said and started jumping up and down, waving. "Sam! Hey, Sam!"

"I don't think he can hear us. As small as we are, the sounds we are making would be imperceptible to human ears," Cas said. "Perhaps if we go back toward the glass he will be able to see us."

"Yeah, because we're the size of crumbs," Dean scoffed. "We are screwed, admit it."

And then Sam reached down and grabbed the snow globe. They all fell to their knees, unable to keep their feet at the movement as Sam walked out of the storage room and finally settled them onto the library table with the box of decorations and the world finally stopped moving.

"Ugh," Dean grunted as he hauled himself to his feet again. "That was annoying. Come on Sammy, look at it!"

Sam came back over to the table and poked around the box before turning his attention to the snow globe again. The three of them all stood up and waved their arms, hoping he would see them and for a minute they thought they would get lucky.

"Sam!" they called.

Sam seemed to be inspecting the snow globe, but then he simply tipped it over to make it snow.

Chaos ensued.

"Sam, no!" Dean screamed as he saw what his brother was about to do, but it was too late. Cas had been right, there was no way they could be heard, especially not when they were being tipped on their heads.

The three of them yelped as they lost their footing, flying up into nothing along with the snow. Dean quickly lost track of what was up and what was down, as he went spinning one way and then the other, until he finally fell with a crash, and this time he really did black out.

~~~~~~~

Sam frowned as he set the snow globe back down again, watching the snow rain down onto the very detailed little village in it, before he went to look again for the others. Where could they have gotten? Were they playing a trick on him, or were they actually in trouble, and if it were the latter, then what could possibly have happened to them?

"Guys, come, on, this isn't funny!" he said, as he once again took to the halls. Any number of things could have come about from poking through the Men of Letters' storage rooms. He and Dean still hadn't gone through everything. He was getting more and more worried by the second, because if they had upset something they shouldn't have, then who knew what would come of it.

~~~~~~~~

Dean felt suffocated, and freezing. He struggled to move, fighting against whatever it was holding him, and with a growing panic, could only recall waking up in that coffin when he had gotten back form Hell. He tried to calm his breathing however, and something cold and wet fell into his mouth. He spit it out before he realized it was snow and then he remembered where he was. Trapped in a snow globe.

Yeah, their lives just got weirder and weirder.

He started clawing his way out of the snow and finally surfaced, gasping for breath. His whole body hurt, and he remembered the tumble through the tiny world induced by his idiot brother who had thought it would be fun to shake the snow globe. He just hoped Sam wouldn't touch the crank at the bottom and get stuck in here too, otherwise they may never get out.

Dean groaned as he hauled himself to his feet and looked around for Charlie and Cas. "Charlie? Cas? Hey!"

He had no idea where they could be, with the impromptu snowstorm they could have ended up anywhere in the village. He just hoped neither of them had gotten impaled on a rooftop somewhere. He realized he had been lucky to land in a snow bank.

He started trudging off toward the village, having landed right by one of the houses on the outskirts, and kept calling for the others.

"Charlie, Cas! Answer me if you can!" he shouted.

He then saw a bit of tan fabric peeking out from a snow drift and ran toward it, scraping snow away hastily until he revealed most of Charlie. She was pale and seemingly unconscious and he pulled her out of the snow, patting her cheeks in an attempt to rouse her.

"Charlie, hey, wake up, come on," he pleaded, hoping she hadn't been injured. He looked her over, and didn't see any drastic broken bones or anything. Hopefully she hadn't hit her head too badly.

She suddenly gasped and coughed, her eyes fluttering open in a panic as she flailed in the snow. "Wha-what happened?" she cried.

"My brother's an idiot," Dean grumbled, helping her to her feet. "But no news there. Can you stand?"

"Yeah," she said a bit uncertainly, then brushed herself off. "That was ridiculous! Who knew being in a snow globe could be so horrifying!" She looked around with a frown. "Where's Castiel?"

"I don't know, I haven't found him yet," Dean replied worriedly, hoping the angel might just pop up somewhere.

"Well, we need to find him, he might have been hurt in the fall," Charlie said worriedly as she pulled Cas' coat snugger around herself and looked around the village. "Let's go look around."

They trudged through the snow and Dean glanced at the small houses and shops they passed. Several of them looked like they had fires burning in them, and Dean found himself longing for some heat to his chilled skin.

"This place is kind of freaky," he muttered.

Charlie looked at him incredulously. "Freaky? It's adorable and full of Christmas feels! What's freaky about it?"

"You know, it's like this perfect little village, but it's completely deserted."

Charlie quirked an eyebrow at him. "So, wait, you're telling me it would be less freaky if there was a colony of teeny tiny people living here?"

Dean considered it and gave a conceding shrug. "Yeah, I guess you have a point."

"Hey, I think I see something!" Charlie cried and hurried forward. Dean followed her swiftly, trying to keep from tripping in the snow and falling on his face.

They had made it to the town square which had a giant Christmas tree in the middle of it. Though now the tree was looking a little lopsided, some branches broken off and scattered around its base, along with a figure sprawled in the snow.

"Castiel!" Charlie gasped and took off toward the figure, tripping once before she regained her footing, reaching the angel a few seconds before Dean did.

"Cas?" he called, as he crouched next to Charlie as she was bending over Cas, a hand on his cheek. He was unconscious and there was blood matting one side of his hair.

"It looks like he hit his head in the fall," Charlie said.

Dean reached down and grabbed Cas' shoulder, shaking him slightly. The angel's eyes fluttered open and he groaned, flinching away from Dean. Charlie put a hand on his chest to steady him.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

Castiel blinked up at them, and then at his surroundings before he frowned. "I—what happened?"

"Sam shook the snow globe and we all went flying. Charlie and I just found you here making snow angels," Dean informed him.

"Oh, that must be why I feel like I tried to fly through gale force wind, and hit a mountain instead," Cas said and he attempted to sit up but gasped and settled back down, gripping his left arm. "I—I think I may have injured myself."

Dean gently inspected his arm, and realized his shoulder was dislocated. "Looks like your shoulder got popped out of joint. Let's get you up and then we'll try to find someplace warm and get you fixed up."

"I'll heal myself," Cas protested and closed his eyes, looking like he was concentrating hard, but he opened them again with a heavy breath, a confused look on his face. "It seems that whatever spell this place is under is interfering with my grace."

"Alright, well, that means we need to figure out how to get out of here as soon as possible," Dean said and reached down to help Cas to his feet, Charlie getting on his other side to help support him as he wobbled, likely concussed. "Come on."

They made their way to the nearest house with a glowing window and stepped inside. A wave of warmth washed over them and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, at least the fire isn't an illusion," Dean said as he settled Cas into a chair by the hearth.

"Look, hot chocolate!" Charlie exclaimed, pointing to several steaming mugs set on the hearth.

"This place really does come fully equipped," Dean said, looking around the cabin that looked like something out of a cheesy Hallmark movie, complete with fully decorated Christmas tree and presents underneath.

But they had other things to worry about. He turned back to Cas. "Alright, I'll pop your shoulder back in and it will feel better after that. Unfortunately we can't really do anything about your head unless there's some aspirin running around."

Cas nodded, grimacing. "It's alright. I'll live."

"On three," Dean said as he got into position. "One—" He snapped it back in and Cas curled forward with a yelp. Dean rested a hand on his good shoulder to keep him from falling out of the chair.

"You didn't count to three," the angel accused.

Dean smiled. "Nope. It never does any good to know it's coming."

Charlie came to sit at Cas' feet and handed him a mug of hot cocoa. "Here, this will warm you up."

Castiel accepted the cocoa with his good hand and sipped it. Dean took another mug and settled by the fire, feeling his appendages finally start to thaw. He hadn't realized how cold he had been until now as his skin started to prickle painfully as the fire seeped warmth into his body again. He rubbed his hands together briskly as he turned to the others.

"So, any brilliant ideas on how to get out of here?"

"I suppose we could look around and see if there's some failsafe," Castiel said. "We had to turn the crank on the bottom of the snow globe to get inside here, perhaps there's a similar way to get out."

"Or not," Dean muttered. "And then we'll be permanently stuck in Christmasville forever."

"At least it's not the worst thing that could happen," Charlie said, trying to offer an optimistic smile. "I mean, perpetual Christmas? Not too bad, right? And there is warmth and food. Or, hot chocolate at least."

"I'm sure Sam will eventually figure out what happened," Cas offered. "And he may be able to find a way to help us on the outside."

"Yeah, but first we need to make sure he knows where we are," Dean grunted, looking around the cabin as if an idea would come to him.

"Oh!" Charlie suddenly said. "I think I have an idea! What if we wrote a message in the snow, like an SOS?"

Dean mulled the idea over in his mind. "Yeah, that could work. But we'd need to make it visible to Sam and big enough that he'll be able to read it."

Charlie pointed to the presents under the tree. "We can make it out of all the stuff in the cabin. It should be bright enough and I bet we'll have enough of it to make a big enough message!"

"It is the best plan we have," Cas admitted.

Dean agreed. "Sounds good. First, let's see if we can find something warm to wear."

Pretty soon, they had found several parkas in the cabin closet and the three of them set to work dragging piles of presents, and even the Christmas trees outside the village where they began to lay out a huge HELP that hopefully Sam would be able to see. It was hard, tiring work, especially since Cas was injured, and it took a long time dragging everything back and forth, but eventually they finished it and stood, panting in the snow, to view their handiwork.

"Great, now all we have to do is wait for Sasquatch to look at us again," Dean muttered.

~~~~~~~~

Sam was growing more and more desperate by the minute. It had been over an hour since Dean, Cas and Charlie had disappeared and he knew now that something had to be wrong. But he couldn't find them anywhere. He even checked all the warding in the bunker to make sure that something hadn't come in and dragged them off, although he didn't know how that would have happened without his knowing. But there was simply no trace of them.

He finally returned to the library to stare at the Christmas things. Without any other leads, he had to come to the conclusion that something among those items was to blame for their disappearance. He just had to figure out what.

He sorted through the box, and found the other small wooden box that he had picked up off the floor, lying by itself. He frowned as he studied it and then saw several sigils carved into it.

"Great, that can't be good," he muttered to himself and set it down. Then he turned his attention back to the snow globe he had found. It didn't look like anything really special, even though it was a nice snow globe and didn't seem like it was just a cheep souvenir. Sam slid it closer to peer into it.

Something instantly seemed off. He looked closer and then reached for a magnifying glass on a nearby bookshelf and looked closer.

The first thing he saw was the tiny HELP laid out in the snow outside the tiny village, and then upon closer inspection he caught sight of three figures moving around. Jumping, actually, and waving their arms.

"Oh, oh crap!" Sam cried, leaning closer to the snow globe. "Dean? Are you guys actually in there?"

They gave exaggerated nods and more waving ensued. Sam swallowed hard, wondering why he hadn't though of that possibility before.

Well, in his defense it was pretty ridiculous.

"Okay, hold on, I'm going to see if I can figure out how to get you out of there."

He got up and picked up the box the snow globe had been in for further inspection. If the snow globe had been processed by the Men of Letters, then there would most likely be a file for it. By some miracle, he found a small number inscribed on the bottom of the box and hurried to find the right file, breathing a sigh of relief as he opened it and saw it contained exactly what he was looking for.

"'Cursed Nantucket Snow Globe 1899'," he read from the file. It was apparently something a witch had created to capture people she wanted out of her way. The Men of Letters hadn't been able to deactivate it completely, but they had found a counter spell to release the trapped souls and that was all Sam needed to know.

Sam hurried back to the table and leaned over again to speak to the snow globe's prisoners. "Okay, guys, I think I found out how to get you out of there. Just hold on!"

He quickly gathered the ingredients for the spell and came back, carefully picking the snow globe up and settling it into the bowl. He blanched then at the thought of how he had shaken it earlier. Yeah, Dean was probably going to tear him a new one for that.

He said the words of the spell and lit a match, dropping it into the bowl. There was a flash, and then suddenly, Dean, Cas and Charlie were standing behind him.

"Thank god," Dean muttered, stomping snow from his boots.

"Are you guys okay?" Sam asked, looking them over and noticing the cut on Cas' forehead. "I'm sorry it took me so long. And…I'm so sorry I shook up the snow globe…"

"You know what, I don't even want to talk about it," Dean said, holding up his hand as he shed the parka he was wearing. "All I know is that that thing is going far away and no one is going to open it up again."

"Already done," Sam said, carefully easing the snow globe out of the bowl and putting it back into its box. He closed it up and added a lock to it. "I'll just take this back to the filing room."

When he left, Charlie turned to Dean. "So, uh, does this mean we can't have Christmas?"

She looked so dejected that Dean had to sigh. "Alright, we can still have Christmas."

"Yay!" Charlie exclaimed. "So, come on, let's decorate the tree! Looks like Sam finally got it to stand upright. Come on, Castiel!"

Cas' injuries were already healing and he smiled as he went to join Charlie around the tree, watching as she instructed him in how best to lay lights on it. Sam returned and stood with Dean as they watched.

"Thanks for the quick thinking, bro," Dean admitted to him. Somewhat grudgingly. He wasn't going to forget the snowstorm.

Sam smiled. "Just another day at the office."

"Ugh," Dean groaned. "One of these days I would just love something to go normally."

"Guys, come on!" Charlie called to them. "It's not gonna decorate itself!"

"Alright!" Dean groused good-naturedly and nudged Sam. "Come on, Sammy, let's enjoy what's left of Christmas."

"Agreed," Sam smiled and they joined the fun as Charlie put them to work, glad that they had the opportunity to enjoy this Christmas together.


	13. Mistletoe and Crazy Angels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meg celebrates Christmas with Cas in the mental ward

The mental ward had been decorated with Christmas; there was even a tree in the day room that the patients had gotten to help decorate, and Castiel seemed to be enjoying the holiday spirit, even if he had a ton of questions about how humans celebrated the holiday.

"Why is it tradition to have Christmas dinner?" he asked Meg now as the patients were served with turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes for their Christmas Eve dinner as a special treat. Meg wasn't sure it could actually be described as 'special' considering it looked no better than the food usually did, but at least Cas didn't need to eat anyway, which was probably a blessing in this place.

"I don't know, I guess because families come together and you have to impress the in-laws," Meg told him. "Why don't you eat it?"

Castiel poked at the turkey uncertainly. "I did like the mashed potatoes, but the gravy has a strange consistency."

"It's powdered," Meg informed him. "Why are you so interested in how humans celebrate Christmas anyway?"

Castiel shrugged. "I have been living on earth for a while now, and realize there are still many things I need to learn about its occupants. Besides, it seems rather festive." He looked up at the demon then. "Would you celebrate Christmas with me, Meg?"

Meg raised her eyebrows. "Oh, because demons know so much about it."

"But you were human once," Castiel pressed. "I never was, though I did come close. It just looks nice, and I would like to be a part of it."

She couldn't really say no when he looked at her like that, so because she could never seem to say no to the crazy angel, she agreed. "Alright, Castiel, I'll celebrate Christmas with you."

He smiled at her. "Thank you, Meg."

"Alright, don't be too grateful about it," she grumped, but was secretly happy for some unknown reason. It had been a long time since she had just enjoyed the holidays, and she supposed the idea of an angel and a demon celebrating Christmas together appealed to her sense of irony. She stood up as Castiel continued to poke at his food. "Well, my shift is almost over. I'll be back later and we can have our Christmas celebration."

"Okay. Bye, Meg," Cas told her as she left the room and went to finish her duties before she left to pick up a couple things for later.

By the time she got back to the hospital and let herself in the side door to get to Castiel's room, she was actually looking forward to spending the evening with Cas and teaching him about Christmas. She smiled to herself; it was high time she educated him, after all.

Castiel smiled as she slipped into his room and she grinned back, setting her bags on the desk in the room. "Hey, Clarence, you ready to actually celebrate Christmas?"

"Yes, Meg," he replied, and stood up, frowning at the bags she had brought. "What do you have?"

Meg shooed him back to sit on the bed, and then produced a red Santa hat with a white pompom on it. "First this," she said as she put it on his head. The slightly confused look he gave her, made him look too adorable for his own good, and she laughed. "It's just a Christmas hat, Castiel. A lot of people wear them."

"Oh, I see," he smiled and watched eagerly as she pulled out several more things. "I also brought something better than the Christmas dinner to eat." She produced a box of store bought Christmas cookies and a thermos of hot chocolate. She handed Cas the cookies and then poured the cocoa into two cups before hanging candy canes off the edges and handing one to Cas.

"Peppermint cocoa is the best," she informed him as she also pulled out a small rectangular wrapped package. "And I got you a present."

Castiel looked at it with interest before he reached under his pillow and pulled out a roll of paper with a self-conscious look on his face. "I—I actually have a present for you too, Meg. I knew it was customary to exchange gifts on Christmas so I made you this. Do you want to see it?"

"Sure," Meg said as she sat down on the bed next to Castiel and took the paper scroll. She unrolled it and revealed one of Cas' sketches, but she was surprised to see a depiction of himself in this one. Castiel was kneeling in the garden, tending to the flowers and the bees, and behind him, Meg stood, looking down at him, but seeming to be looking out for him too. There was something rather protective portrayed in her stance and Meg was once again surprised with how Castiel viewed her.

"This is beautiful, Cas," she told him with a smile and he looked pleased.

"You are my caretaker, Meg," he told her without any doubt in his voice. "I wanted to thank you for staying here with me."

Mixed feelings welled up inside of her as usual. She hadn't always been the best caretaker for Cas. At first she had just wanted him to protect her from Crowley and the demons after her. But once she had found out about his insanity and inability to do that, she had found herself saddled with a broken angel. She was still wondering why she didn't just walk away, bail on the Winchesters again. They wouldn't have expected any less from her, after all. But it had been Castiel himself who had changed her mind. She didn't stay for the Winchesters, she stayed for their broken angel who they had abandoned and who had no one left in the world but the demon who had inexplicably decided to take mercy on him. Why, she probably would never know. She only knew that there was something about Castiel that felt like a kindred spirit, and that, even if she was acting as caretaker to him, there was something in him that she needed just as much.

Talk about a Christmas miracle.

She remembered something else she had brought and reached into her pocket with a smile. "Do you know what this is, Cas?" she asked, pulling out a sprig of greenery.

Castiel frowned. "A plant."

"It's mistletoe," she said, trying to hide a laugh. "It's another human tradition, that when two people stand under mistletoe, they're supposed to kiss."

Castiel looked confused. "But it's a parasitic plant. How is that perceived to be romantic?"

Meg huffed as she held it over his head. "Like I have said many times, you're a lot cuter when you're shutting up, Clarence." She leaned over and kissed him on the corner of his mouth. "There. That's another tradition that you have learned about."

Castiel gave her a bemused smile. "I don't really understand it, but it is rather pleasant."

Meg felt a sudden inexplicable heat come to her cheeks. She really had to get ahold of herself. She shrugged and put the mistletoe on the side table. "Well, I'm glad you don't object. Why don't you open your present now? Then you can experience that tradition too."

She watched with a fond smirk as Castiel carefully unfolded the paper from the present and revealed a dvd of It's a Wonderful Life. "Is this a movie?" he asked her.

"Yep, it's a classic," she told him with a secretive smile. "We're going to watch it tonight."

"That is good," Castiel said. "I think I would like that. Dean always says I need to watch more movies."

"Well, I think you'll like this one," Meg told him as she stood up and pulled out the laptop she had brought and settled it onto the bed. "Scoot over, I'll get this started up."

She put the movie in and they sat together on the small cot drinking the cocoa and eating the cookies as they watched it. Once it was over, late into the night, Meg turned off the laptop and turned to Cas. "Well?"

He smiled at her. "I now understand why you call me Clarence. But ringing bells don't really mean an angel has gotten their wings. It isn't quite so simple as that…"

"Well, it's just a movie after all," Meg told him, hoping he wouldn't go all melancholy on her. "They're very rarely accurate."

He nodded, but there was still a thoughtful look on his face.

"What?" Meg demanded.

"I was just wondering why a demon would enjoy a Christmas movie like that so much," he said.

"What? It's a classic; you have to appreciate the classics," Meg said defensively. Of course, she wouldn't really tell him the truth behind it. Not now in his current state anyway. Sure, the Clarence thing had been spontaneous at first, a joke and nothing more, but as she become fonder of Castiel, she began to think of the movie and realize that Cas had helped her figure out where she stood in the world like Clarence had with George Baily in the movie, even though she was just a lowly demon. Her secret hope, that she didn't even want to think in her deepest thoughts, was that, possibly, if Castiel were able to make her a better person (which she believed he had) it might help him get his standing back in heaven. Not that he wanted anything to do with the place anymore, but…who knows? It was a silly wish, but maybe he could earn his wings back. Figuratively anyway, considering it apparently 'didn't work like that'.

"It was still enjoyable," Castiel told her, interrupting her inner musings. "Do you have any other Christmas movies?"

Meg smiled at him and pulled up the laptop again to see if there were any Christmas movies on Netflix. Then they spent the rest of the night watching them together, as she introduced him to more classics.

Finally though, Cas dozed off against her shoulder, looking adorable in his slightly askew Santa hat, and she carefully got off the cot and closed the laptop down as she gathered up all the stuff she had brought. She then returned to the cot and pulled a blanket over Cas, before bending over to kiss him on the cheek. "Merry Christmas, Castiel," she whispered.

As she was leaving, the light of dawn was just brimming over the horizon, and somewhere, even though she was pretty sure it was just her imagination, she thought she heard the tinkling of bells.

 


	14. Happy Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Dean spend a Christmas at Bobby's house while John is off on a hunt. Bobby just wants to give them a nice Christmas

It was Christmas Eve and John Winchester was driving away from Bobby Singer's house leaving two small boys standing on the porch, watching him go. Dean who was clutching little Sammy's hand, had a stoic, yet obviously disappointed look on his face, and Sam, at only four years old, looked bewildered and was probably wondering why his daddy was leaving when it was so close to the holiday. Bobby was inwardly seething at John's neglect of his sons, but he tried not to show it in front of the boys. He certainly wasn't going to poison them against their own father. But still…sometimes that man just made him want to blow his top.

It was chilly though and the boys in their ragged coats and worn-out sneakers were probably freezing. He reached out to put his hand on Dean's shoulder, nudging him toward the warm house. "Come on, boys, let's go get you some hot chocolate and I'll see what I can whip up for supper."

He sat them at the kitchen table and made their hot chocolate, pouring some coffee for himself.

"Thank you, Uncle Bobby," Dean told him.

"You're welcome, son," Bobby said and eyed them, as he joined them at the table. "Maybe tonight we can see if there's a Christmas special on TV."

"I like Rudolph," Sam piped up as he sipped his cocoa, getting a chocolate mustache. "Do you have a Christmas tree, Uncle Bobby?"

Bobby chuckled. "No, I'm sorry to say I don't." He watched Sammy's face fall slightly. "What do you boys usually do for Christmas?"

Dean shrugged. "Sometimes Dad will get us Boston Market. Or we'll watch movies on TV."

"Sometimes Santa brings presents," Sammy said but then scrunched up his face. "But sometimes Daddy says he must have gotten lost. Maybe because we don't have a chimney in the motels."

Bobby watched Dean's face and his heart fell at Sam's childish innocence, and the obvious lack of Dean's. At that moment, Bobby made the decision to make sure those two kids actually got a Christmas that year, John Winchester be damned.

"Well, you know what, boys? I think we should go out and see if we can't find a Christmas tree," Bobby told them.

Both of them looked instantly excited. "Really, Uncle Bobby?" Sammy asked. "You mean an actual real Christmas tree to decorate?"

"Yup," Bobby told him, unable to help a smile.

"Do you even have decorations, Uncle Bobby?" Dean asked skeptically.

Bobby frowned at his lack of faith. "I think I've got something somewhere. And if not, we can make some."

"Yay! Can we go now?" Sammy asked, leaping from his chair and dancing around."

"Hold your horses, kiddo, first I'm gonna see if I can find you some warmer clothes. Finnish your hot chocolate, and I'll be back in a minute."

He went upstairs to rummage in one of the closets. He thought he might have had some old stuff of his somewhere. If not, he may have to see if he could get down to the local thrift shop and get them some new coats.

Which reminded him…if he was going to give them a proper Christmas this year, then he would need to procure some presents. And for that he was going to need to recruit some help.

Bobby ducked back to the stairs to make sure the boys were still occupied and then went to his bedroom to use the phone there so they wouldn't be able to overhear him.

It took a few rings for the line to be picked up but pretty soon a young woman's voice came over it. "Jody Mills."

"Hey, Jody, it's Bobby Singer."

"Bobby?" she asked incredulously. "What are you doing calling me?"

He snorted, knowing he and the young deputy didn't have the best track record, but she was the only one he could think of now. "Well, I kind of need some help. See, a friend of mine is going through a sort of family emergency and dropped his kids here for me to look after and I—"

"If you're looking for a babysitter forget it," Jody cut in.

"I ain't looking for a babysitter, I'm perfectly capable of watching two boys myself," Bobby grumbled. "What I need is someone to pick them out a couple of Christmas presents. I can't leave them here and I can't very well shop with them."

"Why don't you just let them pick out what they want?" Jody asked.

"Would you have liked someone to do that to you when you were a kid?" Bobby asked her skeptically.

Jody sighed. "No. That's lazy parenting. Alright, I'll do it. How old are they and what do they like?"

Bobby talked to her a little about what he thought Sam and Dean might enjoy and she promised to have the presents there that night. "Thanks Jody," Bobby told her gratefully.

"Well, I'd say any time, but…" she replied but he could hear a smile in her voice. "I'll see ya later."

Now that that was taken care of, Bobby went back to rummaging through closets until he had found two kid-sized jackets for the boys to wear. Both of them would be big on little Sammy, but at least they were less careworn than the ones they had on, and would be much warmer. He gathered some mittens and hats too and then carried the whole lot back downstairs to the kitchen where the two boys had finished their cocoa and were waiting eagerly for their tree hunting expedition.

"Alright, let's get you two suited up and then we can go pick a Christmas tree."

Once they got into the coats and mittens, Sam's swallowing him almost comically, Bobby led them outside and grabbed his axe, before they trudged through the salvage yard to a wooded area out behind it where Bobby knew they could find some evergreen trees.

"Okay, boys, why don't you pick out a tree," he told them with a smile.

"Come on De!" Sammy cried, grabbing his brother's hand and pulling him into the woods, as they scouted out the perfect Christmas tree. Bobby couldn't help but smile at seeing the kids happy for once. He had begun to be secretly glad John had left them on his doorstep on Christmas Eve. This was probably going to be the first real Christmas they'd had since Dean was little and Mary was still alive.

Bobby waited for them to decide on the tree they wanted, and finally the two settled on one that was a good size but not too big. It was just a little taller than Dean.

"We like this one!" Sam cried, hopping up and down by the tree.

"Looks like a good choice, boys," Bobby told them and handed the axe to Dean. "You get to start cutting it."

"Stand back, Sammy," Dean informed his little brother as he hefted the axe with a grin and started to cut into the tree trunk.

Once they had finished cutting the tree down, all of them taking turns, Bobby dragged it back to the house and the boys helped him choose a spot in the den and get it situated.

"Now we decorate it?" Sammy asked.

"Now we decorate it," Bobby nodded. "Let me see if I have any old ornaments lying around."

The boys helped him look through several closets until he came up with an old box of Christmas decorations. There were even some lights that hopefully would still work. Then he stepped back and let them go to work.

Dean helped Sam reach some of the higher places, but they were able to decorate the tree rather tastefully, Bobby thought with a smile. Sure, he normally wasn't really much for Christmas and all that, but having the boys around made it fun.

"We're done!" Dean said, looking proudly at their tree.

"Wait, the star!" Sammy cried, pulling a golden star from the box and turning to Bobby. "Uncle Bobby, can you help me put it on?"

"Sure thing," Bobby told him and picked the little boy up so that he could settle the star onto the top of the tree.

"Yay!" Sammy cried, clapping his hands. "It looks great! I always wanted a Christmas tree!"

"Well, now you have one. Now, why don't you boys sit at the table and make some paper snowflakes while I see what I can rustle up for dinner."

They happily made snowflakes until Bobby had finished dinner and then once they had eaten, they went to the den to find some Christmas specials on TV.

"Uncle Bobby, wait," Sam said, running back up to him before he settled onto the couch. "Can we leave something for Santa?"

Dean met Bobby's eyes skeptically, but Bobby smiled at Sam and ruffled his hair. "Sure you can. I think there's some cookies in the cupboard. Why don't you go put some on a plate and put them under your Christmas tree?"

Sam ran into the kitchen excitedly and Dean followed to help him, making sure Sammy didn't make a mess. Bobby watched them fondly as Sam situated the plate and then he and Dean leapt onto the couch to watch TV.

It wasn't even nine o'clock before the boys were both asleep, Sammy curled up against his brother and Dean with a protective arm wrapped around his shoulders.

Bobby smiled at them and took the blanket from the back of the couch to tuck around them, but they were still fast asleep. He figured he could just leave them there for the night, so he didn't have to disturb them.

He was just going into the kitchen to get another cup of coffee so he could get some work done—hunters didn't really get to relax, even on the holidays—when there was a quiet knock on the kitchen door.

Bobby hurried over to open it, hoping it hadn't woken the boys, but they were still fast asleep when he opened the door to reveal Jody, carrying several bags.

"Merry Christmas," she said, holding them up.

Bobby hushed her and then ushered her inside, closing the door that led from the kitchen to the rest of the house. Jody had started to unload the bags she carried and Bobby was surprised to find several gifts, already wrapped.

"I wasn't sure if you had wrapping paper, so I just did it myself," she told him.

"Thanks, Jody, I owe you one," Bobby told her.

She smiled. "Yeah, well, it's Christmas, right? I hope the boys like them."

"I'm sure they will," Bobby told her before paying her for the gifts. "I hope you have a good Christmas."

"You too, Bobby," she said as she left.

Bobby carefully gathered the gifts and, as silently as possible, slipped into the den and placed them under the tree. He grabbed a couple of the cookies from the plate as he went to get some work done.

~~~~~~~~

Bobby woke in the morning to excited gasps. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and got up from the couch he had fallen asleep on, cracking his back as he made his way back to the den where Sam and Dean were crouching around the Christmas tree, rattling their presents.

"Uncle Bobby!" Sammy shouted as he saw Bobby come into the room. "Look! Santa came!"

"He sure did," Bobby told him with a grin. "Why don't you wait 'til I make some coffee and then you can open those up?"

Soon, he took a seat on the couch and watched as Sam and Dean ripped into their presents, exclaiming over the things: a set of matchbox cars and several books for Sammy, and a baseball and glove, for Dean, along with a couple books of his own that he would be able to read to Sammy.

"Yay! Look at this, Dean, this is so cool!" Sammy cried, showing Dean some of his cars. "This is the best Christmas ever!"

Bobby smiled, especially when he saw how happy Dean also looked. He knew the kid had way too much of a burden put on him for his age, having to pretty much be Sammy's mother and sometimes his father too when John left them to their own devices. Bobby sometimes wished he would leave them here perpetually, but he knew that would never happen.

While Sam was occupied with his new cars and books, Dean went over and surprised Bobby with a hug.

"Thanks Uncle Bobby," he said with a smile. "This was the best Christmas ever."

Bobby smiled and hugged him back. "You're welcome, son."

And that was all Bobby needed to have a happy Christmas.


	15. Family Traditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam, Dean and Castiel celebrate Jack's first Christmas. Set S13

"So, this is…tradition?"

"Hell yes," Dean explained to the nephillim as Jack sat on the floor of the kitchen, watching the tray of half-baked cookies in the oven, curiously waiting for them to be finished. "And this is the best part. When they come out hot and fresh."

"I like cookies," Jack stated. "I didn't realize they were for a particular time of year, though."

Dean shrugged. "Well, they don't have to be, but typically gingerbread cookies are saved for Christmas time. And that just makes them more special." He glanced toward the library where grunts and growls could be heard. "Hey, what do you say we go help Sam and Cas with the decorating while we're waiting for the cookies to finish?"

Jack smiled with a nod and bounded off the floor to follow Dean into the library where Sam and Cas were busy trying to untangle a ball of ancient Christmas lights that had been left over from the Men of Letters in the past. They'd found them in one of the storage rooms. Apparently even the Men of Letters had had office Christmas parties.

"How's it going?" Dean smirked.

Sam shot him a bitchface. "This is like the Gordian Knot," he grunted.

"Worse," Cas growled as he set the tangle he was currently working on aside with a sigh of frustration. "You can't cut it."

"May I try?" Jack asked, stepping forward.

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Be my guest."

Jack sat at the table and within only a few minutes, he had loosened one ball with deft fingers then began unreeling the long string of lights while the others watched in amazement. Sam stepped forward to wind them into a better, more manageable, loop, and when Jack had finished untangling he sat back with a smile and looked up at the others.

"Now what do we do with them?" he asked

Sam broke into a grin. "Here, I'll show you." He pointed to the tree sitting in the corner of the library. Dean had brought it home earlier on his special holiday shopping run. Sam had met him with a questioning gaze, but Dean had just shrugged and said defensively, "It's the kid's first Christmas. Besides, we all deserve a break."

No one had argued with him and Dean was happy just to take some time off and relax. Besides, he still really kind of wanted to make it up to Jack. He hadn't exactly been easy on the kid when they'd first brought him there; in fact, he'd been a real dick. But Jack had proved himself to be a part of their little family, and, hell, Dean had warmed up to him after all. It was pretty hard not to when the kid was as socially awkward as Cas, but honestly blurted things like "I like cookies" reminding Dean of a young Sammy. Yeah, who said the Devil's kid was evil incarnate?

"So, first, we wrap the lights around the tree, and then we can put ornaments on," Sam explained. "We have a few ornaments in that box over there, but we can put anything else we want on it, since there's not that many."

Dean was already rummaging through the box of old ornaments they had found. Classic red and green balls and, ugh, tinsel. They were totally not putting that crap on the tree. He was not going to be cleaning that up around the bunker until next Christmas. But at the bottom he found something that made him smirk and he pulled it out and held it up.

"But you do need an angel for the top," he said with a smirk, handing the little angelic figurine to Cas who simply rolled his eyes.

"A star is also traditional, I've heard," the angel said.

"Oh," Jack said, studying the little tree topper angel with interest as he carefully extricated it from Cas' hands. He studied it and smiled. "I like it. It sort of looks like you, Castiel."

Cas looked like he was refraining from rolling his eyes again, and instead smiled at the kid tolerantly. "If you say so."

They put up what ornaments they had but they didn't do much to cover the tree.

"We could make a popcorn string, or buy some candy canes," Sam offered.

"Actually," Dean spoke up. "I think we should make some paper show flakes like you and I used to decorate all the crappy motel rooms with as kids, Sammy."

"I haven't done those in years," Sam grinned.

"Alright," Dean clapped his hands together. "Sammy, you go get paper and scissors, I'll go get the cookies out of the oven."

When Dean came back with a plate of fresh cookies, the four of them sat down and began folding and cutting paper into snowflakes. Sam and Dean's were a little clumsy at first, them being out of practice, but the ones Jack and Cas made were extremely intricate. Dean was almost jealous, looking between theirs as opposed to his slightly square snowflake with giant holes.

"Wow, Jack, those are really nice," Sam said, looking for all the world like a proud father. Dean smiled too.

"I like making snowflakes," Jack said with a smile. "And I like gingerbread cookies. Christmas is fun!"

Sam laughed, and Dean was happy to see him look genuinely content. More than he had for a long time. "Yeah, Jack, it is. It's a nice time to just enjoy family."

"I'm glad I have you as my family," Jack said sincerely, looking between the three of them. "I don't think Lucifer would let me have such a nice Christmas."

Dean tried not to let himself shudder at the mention of the fallen archangel. Cas smiled at Jack and settled a hand on his shoulder.

"We're glad to have you too, Jack," the angel told him sincerely.

They spent the rest of the day decorating, and then sitting down and introducing Jack to some of their favorite Christmas movies.

It was Christmas Eve, so that night, Sam and Dean snuck the presents they had bought underneath the tree, noticing a couple others already under there. Dean also smiled as he looked up at their tree and noticed that someone—likely their resident nephillim—had modified the angel topper to have a trench coat and blue tie. Cas would probably be less than amused, but Dean kinda had to admit it was hilarious and even sort of touching in a way.

He was woken early the next morning in a way he hadn't been in years. Only this time it was a half angel man-child and not a little Sammy, hopping into his room to shake him awake.

"Dean, is it Christmas?" Jack asked as Dean groaned and rubbed sleep from his eyes, looking up at the kid's wide eyes, and Star Wars pajamas that he had picked out for himself a while back when they'd taken him clothes shopping.

"Hmm, yeah, kid," Dean muttered.

"I already made coffee. Everyone else is already awake," Jack said.

Dean allowed himself to be yanked from the bed, and tugged his robe on in the cold bunker, heading out to the library where Sam met him with a cup of hot coffee.

"Merry Christmas, Dean," Sam told him.

Dean couldn't help but smile, especially now that he had his coffee. "Merry Christmas, little brother."

"Castiel! There're presents under the tree!" Jack exclaimed, actually sounding astonished as he crouched to inspect them closer.

Cas smiled too. "Yes, Jack, we all got you a few things."

Jack stared back at them wide-eyed. "But I didn't get anything for anyone."

Dean shook his head. "That's not what Christmas is about, Jack. Presents are just a perk. It's really about spending time with family. Besides, you need more stuff than we do. Come on, open up the one from Sam and Cas."

Cas took a large flat box from under the tree and carefully unwrapped the paper. His eyes widened as he saw what was inside.

"Is this…my own computer?" he asked.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, we thought you could use your own laptop since you've gotten pretty good at it. That way you don't have to borrow mine or Dean's when you want to use one."

"Thank you!" Jack said sincerely and carefully set the gift aside.

Dean nodded to another smaller box. "There's one from me too. Why don't you open that one next?"

Jack dutifully opened that gift, revealing a wooden box with a latch. He frowned and opened it, then stared at the gift inside with mixed feelings.

"It's a gun," he said, hesitantly.

Dean nodded. "Yes it is, Colt .45 just like mine."

"But…it can hurt people," Jack said, seeming a bit distressed.

Dean shook his head, crouching down next to Jack. "Jack, a gun is just a tool, and an important one in a hunter's arsenal." He nodded to the box that Jack still held, unsure of what to think of the gift. "I know you have your powers and whatnot, but it's good to learn how to use normal weapons too. And I'm going to teach you how to use it safely and take care of it. If you know how to properly use a gun, it's no more dangerous than anything else. Besides, I want you to have some sort of protection if your powers get knocked out or you're put into a position where you can't use them."

"It is a good skill to learn, Jack," Cas coaxed him.

"And we'll teach you how to use a blade too," Sam said with a smile.

"That's right," Dean told him, settling a hand on Jack's shoulder. "If you're going to be a hunter, you need some hunter training. You're doing good with the research, but you need to learn how to handle yourself in the field too."

Jack relaxed slightly now that he realized Dean wasn't specifically asking him to kill people and smiled. "Thank you, Dean. I would really enjoy learning more about other aspects of hunting. And I would like for you to teach me how to use this gun."

Dean grinned and couldn't help ruffling the kid's hair. "If you want, I can take you down to the shooting gallery later today. I bet you're gonna be a crack shot."

They opened the rest of the presents, then spent the rest of the day eating food, watching Christmas movies, and simply enjoying each other's company while they had a moment of peace. Jack eventually fell asleep on the couch while watching movies, and Dean smiled and pulled a blanket over the kid. Overall, he thought they had given Jack a good first Christmas.


	16. Blue Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story is set between 12x8 and 12x9 while Sam and Dean are still locked up. Cas and Mary are missing their family for Christmas

The bunker was too quiet. That was something Castiel still hadn't gotten used to over the long weeks that Sam and Dean had been gone. There was no more snarky banter between the brothers, no delicious smell of the hamburgers Dean would sometimes make when they had the time to sit down to a home cooked meal. None of their nighttime sounds of snoring and shifting in bed. It was cold outside and somehow even colder in the bunker without the men who gave it life.

It was only Castiel and Mary now. Castiel neither ate or slept, of course, and Mary only rarely did. They simply spent long hours looking into anything they could to try and find out where Sam and Dean had been taken, hoping vainly to find a way to rescue them. Castiel had been angry, if not completely unsurprised, that Crowley hadn't been able to do anything—or, really, hadn't wanted to. He seemed to think from his own experiences that Sam and Dean could get out of anything. Perhaps, ironically, the demon had more faith than Castiel when it came to that. Because the angel just wasn't sure this time. He just wasn't sure Sam and Dean would be able to get out of this one themselves.

It had already been nearly a month and they still hadn't found anything. Sam and Dean, for all intents and purposes, seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. Yes, Castiel had been there when Dean had gotten out of Purgatory, both brothers had even come back from the dead. More than once. But for some reason this seemed different. There was no supernatural cause behind their disappearance this time. It was human. And for some reason, that seemed to be what got them every time.

Yes, Castiel knew that one way or another, they would get Sam and Dean back, no matter the cost, but when and in what condition…that was something he wasn't sure of. And the fact that they still had to find Kelly Kline and her unborn child was only making the whole situation more frantic.

But one thing he had forgotten among everything else was that he had another Winchester freshly back from the dead after a much longer sabbatical than Sam or Dean had ever had, and on top of losing her sons to all points nowhere, Mary was just trying to adjust to being back in the land of the living after over thirty years spent in her Heaven.

The other thing Castiel had forgotten—or more rather overlooked in his desperation to find his friends—was that it was Christmas time. And that was the time of year that humans became even more sentimental for family and togetherness. And Mary, perhaps especially, was feeling that more than anyone else that year, with no family left of her own to be around her.

It was late one night when Castiel came back to the bunker after following a pointless lead on Kelly Kline. Leads on Sam and Dean had gone from slim to none so he was mainly just trying to keep himself busy so that he wouldn't completely lose his mind. But he found Mary sitting in the library in the dark, with only one lamp on and a cold cup of coffee for company. In front of her was scattered a collection of pictures of when Sam and Dean were little. Castiel stopped in the doorway, wondering if he was intruding, but then Mary looked up, wiping her eyes swiftly on the back of her hand.

"Oh, Castiel. I didn't hear you come in."

"I came through the garage," Castiel told her and stepped into the room, figuring it was okay to intrude now that she had spoken to him. "Mary…are you okay?"

She took a deep sigh and lowered her head down, running her hands through her hair. "I'm just…tired. Everything feels so heavy. I just…are we ever going to find them, Castiel? Because I'm starting to wonder…"

Castiel sighed as he finally sat down across from her. "We will find them," he assured her. "I promise I will do everything in my power to find them and bring them home."

She ran a hand over her face again and sniffed. "I just…everything that's happened already, I've pretty much ruined things with them by leaving, and I guess I thought, I hoped, that we might get together for the holidays." She reached down to touch one of the pictures in front of her. "It's been so long."

Castiel carefully slid the picture toward himself so that he could see it. It showed Mary sitting in front of a newly decorated Christmas tree with a very young Dean sitting in her lap, both smiling. It was a beautiful picture and Castiel couldn't help but smile, if not a bit sadly knowing what was to come for this happy family.

"Dean was three is this picture," she told him. "This was right after I told him he was going to be a big brother." She bit her lip and looked off into the shadows of the library, her eyes shining. "I never…I never even got to have Christmas with Sammy."

Castiel set the picture aside and reached across the table to settle his hand over Mary's. "There will be other Christmases, Mary," he told her kindly, trying to sound comforting. "I know it won't be the same, but, perhaps you can make new traditions."

"I know," she sighed. "I just hoped that this year we could have done something nice." She glanced over at Castiel then. "Did you ever spend Christmas with them? What did they do?"

Castiel smiled wryly. "Well, a lot of times we were too busy saving the world to stop and truly enjoy the holidays. But, yes, some years we were able to do something. I don't think it was anything quite so grand as most people seem to expect out of Christmas but it would make Sam and Dean relax and smile and that is something they need to do more often."

Mary smiled at that, though her eyes were still sad. "My poor boys," she whispered, wiping her eyes again. "The life they had…I grew up as a hunter and I know what that's like, but living on the road, with a broken family…I can't imagine."

"It's not your fault, Mary," Castiel told her gently.

"But it is," she admitted. "It is my fault for making the deal in the first place."

"Hey," Castiel said and she looked up at him. "I should know, sometimes you do the wrong things for the right reasons. That doesn't mean that the blame is yours completely." He smiled. "Besides, despite everything, Sam and Dean grew up into brave, good men. They have saved countless lives, and even the world on multiple occasions. And I have been lucky enough to be there for a good portion of that."

"I know," Mary sniffed, but there was a look of pride on her face. "I am proud of them. Even if I wish they could live normal lives with families of their own. I just can't believe my little boys grew up to be such heroes."

She looked down at the pictures again, gently touching one of Dean holding baby Sammy, even at four-years-old so caring and protective of his little brother.

"I just wish I had them here for Christmas," Mary sighed. "I suppose it's too much to ask for a Christmas miracle."

Castiel furrowed his brow. "I don't know, in my experience, miracles may be few and far between, but I still believe they happen." He had another thought then, and stood from the table. "Mary, I'll be back. I have to pick up a few things."

Castiel drove swiftly into town, to the only store open this late on Christmas Eve, a gas station, and in a way, that was perfect because it was the way Sam and Dean had spent Christmases most of the time over the years. Castiel picked up the things he needed there, and then stopped at their favorite local pizza place and grabbed an extra pizza the owner there gave him for free as he was closing to head home, and then Castiel went back to the bunker to his own family. Mary had certainly become that to him over the weeks he'd spent with her searching for Sam and Dean. They had formed a real friendship and Castiel had vowed to take care of her like he did her sons.

And right now that involved attempting to raise her spirits a little during this holiday that you were supposed to spend with the ones you loved.

She had put the pictures away by the time he had come back and she watched curiously as he set his purchases down on the table in front of her.

"Castiel, what is all this?" she asked.

"I wanted to show you how Sam and Dean celebrate Christmas," he told her. He motioned to the pizza. "Usually they're on the road, so they get take out." He opened the other bag and pulled out a carton of eggnog and a bottle of whisky. "I'm not sure if I can replicate the way Sam mixes the eggnog, but I'll do my best."

Mary watched him as he poured the eggnog into a bowl and tried to measure out the proper amount of whisky into it.

Mary finally put a hand on his with a sharp laugh. "I think that's enough."

Castiel set the bottle aside and smiled as he grabbed two glasses from the liquor cabinet in the corner of the library and dished out two glasses, handing one to Mary.

She cautiously took a sip, coughed slightly, and then actually smiled. "Well, it's certainly strong."

Castiel tasted it too and pulled a face, nodding. "Yes, this is the way Sam usually makes it."

He reached into the last bag and pulled out a DVD of It's a Wonderful Life. "We also usually watch Christmas movies. I haven't seen this one yet but…an old friend said I should watch it. I thought you might like to watch it with me?"

Mary smiled genuinely then, and Castiel knew she was still sad, as was he, both of them missing the rest of their family, but they were also not alone that night, and their loss only heightened their companionship. Castiel set up the DVD since Mary was still unsure of how to do that, and they sat together and watched the movie, all about Christmas miracles, and ate pizza and drank the spiked eggnog, and by the time Christmas morning dawned, they were renewed in the hope that they would find Sam and Dean and perhaps next Christmas, they could all have a big celebration together.


	17. Angels We Have Heard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one shot is a sequel to my story "Sanctuary" you don't have to have read that one first, but this story does reference it. Mainly it's about Cas visiting Maddie (an original character from the story) on Christmas.

Maddie loved Christmas. It was her favorite time of year. Not only did it mean brightly wrapped presents under the Christmas tree, but the whole feel of the season, people being kinder to each other, wearing brightly colored sweaters, and of course, every kid was exited about the prospects of what they might find waiting for them under the tree Christmas morning. The cool weather, the delicious treats that she helped her mom make, and now it was Christmas Eve and her dad had brought home a tree for them to decorate.

"Daddy, it's so big!" Maddie exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement as her dad wrestled the tree into the corner while her mom watched with a smile before she stepped in to help, having mercy on her husband.

"Well, I thought it was a nice one," her dad said with a grin and stepped back to kiss Maddie on the forehead. "I'll go grab the decorations out of the closet."

The three of them then set to making the tree look extremely festive indeed. First stringing the lights around it, then carefully placing the ornaments on the branches. Maddie loved the red balls best, she thought they looked like candy apples.

But her favorite part came at the end: putting the angel on the top of the tree. This had always been her job for as long as she could remember and she always felt like Christmas was really starting when they finished decorating their tree.

Her mom pulled the little figurine out of the box where it had been wrapped carefully and handed it with a smile to Maddie. "It looks like it's time to finish the tree off," she said.

Maddie smiled but as she looked down at the angel, she was reminded of the real angel she had met that past summer: Castiel. She couldn't help but think that this angel, with a beautiful face, curly hair, long robes, and white wings didn't really look anything like her angel. Even though she had seen Castiel's wings, she knew angels didn't have them out normally. It was only because he had been cursed by demons. She shuddered involuntarily at the thought of the demons who had kidnapped her and tried to force Castiel to tell them where his friends were. She wondered if her friend and his human charges, Sam and Dean, were all right and having a nice Christmas too.

"Maddie?" her dad asked with concern.

"Are you okay, honey?" her mom asked.

Maddie shook herself and smiled. "Oh, yes. I was just wondering if this is what angels really look like."

Her mother smiled. "I'm sure it is very close."

"You ready to put it on the tree?" her dad asked and she nodded eagerly, allowing him to lift her up so she could carefully place the angel on top of the tree, wishing it looked a little more like Castiel.

"There, is looks lovely!" Maddie's mom said happily. "Now, dinner is almost ready and then you'll have to be off to bed soon, Maddie. Otherwise Santa won't come."

Maddie smiled and skipped into the kitchen, but secretly, it wasn't Santa she was hoping for that night. It was an angel in a trench coat.

~~~~~~~

Maddie left a plate of cookies under the tree for Santa and then pretended to go to sleep, but as soon as she heard her parents go to their own room and her father's snores, she snuck out of bed, dressed in warm clothes and headed downstairs and after grabbing a few things, crept carefully out the back door.

It was cold and the woods were quiet but the clubhouse was inviting once she was inside and turned the lights on. She and her friends had decorated it last week when her mom had found a little Christmas tree and some lights at a yard sale and given them to Maddie for her clubhouse. She and Emily and Leah had had a good time making their clubhouse festive and the colored lights looked even more magical in the dark.

Maddie sat on the couch and set her basket on the table in front of her and then she closed her eyes, clasped her hands, and prayed to Castiel like he had told her to.

"Castiel, it's Maddie. I just really wish I could see you for Christmas…if you're not too busy, maybe you can stop by sometime. Amen."

She didn't know if he had heard her. Perhaps he was still fighting the war with Sam and Dean. Maybe he wouldn't have time to come and visit her.

But she only had to wait several minutes before there was the sound of flapping and a wash of cool air blew over her. She stood with a gasp as she looked over and saw Castiel standing in her clubhouse, dressed in his trench coat, and wearing a smile on his face.

"Hi Maddie," he said softly.

"Castiel! You came!" she exclaimed happily and ran forward to throw her arms around him. He held her tightly before he pulled back and looked down at her.

"Yes, as you said, I wanted to wish you a merry Christmas."

"You too!" Maddie said and grabbed his hand, pulling him over to the couch. "Come on, I have hot chocolate and cookies!"

Castiel sat down next to her as Maddie poured the cocoa from a thermos into two cups and added marshmallows and then pulled out cookies wrapped in a napkin, offering them to Castiel first. "The gingerbread men are my favorite," she told him.

Castiel took one of them and ate it thoughtfully as he sipped his cocoa.

"How have you been?" he asked her.

"Good," Maddie said. "But I missed you. Are you still fighting a war?"

Castiel shook his head. "No, we won. You don't have to worry about that anymore, Maddie."

"How are Sam and Dean?" Maddie asked then.

Castiel smiled. "They are well."

"Are you going to spend Christmas with them?"

Castiel nodded. "Yes. I was with them when I heard your prayer. They told me to tell you Merry Christmas from them. Tomorrow, Dean insists that I taste some of Sam's famous eggnog. For some reason I think he was being facetious."

Maddie smiled. "Tell them Merry Christmas from me too!" she said and then snuggled against Castiel's side in the cold, sipping her hot cocoa with a pleased expression. "I'm glad you came. I was hoping I would get to see you again."

"Me too," Castiel said fondly. "I'll have to make a habit of visiting more when I get the chance."

"Yes," Maddie exclaimed firmly.

Then, like they did before when Castiel was hiding out in the clubhouse, they sat and talked for a long time about a lot of things. They finished the cocoa and the cookies, and eventually Maddie began to doze off as it got later and later into the night.

When she finally fell asleep completely, Castiel gathered her things into her basket, slung it over his arm, and then picked her up gently before flying to her room where he gently lay her in the bed and pulled the covers over her.

As he was setting the basket down, he noticed something wrapped in festive paper sticking out of it, and when he pulled it out, he saw it was a present with his name on the tag in Maddie's careful handwriting. Curious, but quietly so he wouldn't wake her, he unwrapped the gift, knowing she had likely meant to give it to him personally, and found it was one of her Nancy Drew stories. Castiel smiled, remembering passing the time he had spent cooped up in the clubhouse reading the adventures. He tucked it fondly into his coat pocket, and lay the wrapping paper out on Maddie's side table so she would know he had gotten it.

He was going to write a thank you note, but instead, he decided that a gift was best returned with a gift. Having a good idea of what to offer in return, he reached up toward one of his incorporeal wings, and carefully gripped one of his feathers, tugging it free. As soon as it was no longer a part of his wing, it materialized, black and gleaming, in his hand. Castiel pushed some of his grace into the feather and several sigils carved themselves into the quill; this would make sure it was untraceable in case anyone tried to track Castiel through his feathers again.

He set the feather on top of the paper on the side table and glanced at the sleeping girl one more time.

"Merry Christmas, Maddie," he whispered fondly, tucking her blankets in a little more firmly before he spread his wings and flew back to the Winchesters, happy that both he and Maddie would be able to spend Christmas with their families.


	18. Christmas Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie spends Christmas with Sam and Dean and Cas, but she's feeling a little down. They make her feel better.

"Whoa, what are you doing?"

"Making the Fellowship of the Ring, duh."

"These are Christmas cookies! Aren't they supposed to just be generic gingerbread men or Santa and Mrs. Claus?"

"Why? That's boring. Besides, it was my idea, I get to decorate them the way I want to."

The kitchen in the bunker was currently a disaster. It looked like a tornado had picked up the contents of a bakery and unloaded it there. Sam, Dean and Castiel hadn't exactly been planning on doing anything for Christmas, which was tomorrow, but then Charlie had showed up out of the blue with presents and so much holiday spirit that they hadn't been able to say no. And of course, why would they? The world somehow wasn't ending and they deserved a break.

They had spent the afternoon baking gingerbread cookies after Charlie had convinced Dean they should go to the store to get supplies to make them, and now they were decorating them in very interesting ways. So far, there were a smattering of generic gingerbread men from Sam, Dean and Cas, and then Charlie's, which ranged from Lord of the Rings characters to the crew of the Enterprise.

"I didn't know they were supposed to look like anything in particular," Cas said, as he painstakingly placed chocolate chips onto one of his gingerbread ladies for eyes.

"That's the fun part," Charlie told him with a grin as she finished up her latest set of cookies and sat back, gesturing to her final project with a flourish. "Ta-dah! Check it out, gingerbread Team Free Will—and me, of course."

The Winchesters and Cas looked down at Charlie's latest creation and couldn't help but crack a smile at their gingerbread look-alikes. Charlie had even painstakingly colored Sam and Dean's shirts plaid and given Cas a little tie and trench coat.

"Alright, those are pretty good," Dean admitted grudgingly. "Not sure how I feel about participating in cannibalism, though…"

Charlie grinned, and stood up, going over to the sink to wash the stickiness from her hands. "You know you want to! Now, come on guys, we have more decorating to get done!"

She was zipping back into the library before any of the men could say anything. Dean puffed his cheeks out with a glance at Sam.

"Does she ever stop? Here I was hoping for a relaxing holiday…"

"Dean," Sam smiled fondly. "Isn't it just nice to actually have Christmas? What are you, a Scrooge?"

"Am not," Dean grumbled, folding his arms over his chest. "I just don't think she needs any more sugar."

"I think she's charming, I like her," Cas said with a fond smile.

Dean couldn't help but feel there was something going on though. Charlie was always slightly dorky—in an adorable way—and kind of excitable but she hadn't stopped going since she showed up at the bunker that morning. Already they had gone Christmas shopping, grabbed some decorations, including a little Christmas tree that Charlie was currently installing in the bunker's library and then, of course, they'd spent the last two hours baking and decorating gingerbread cookies. The kitchen was a disaster, and Dean felt like he needed a nap. Maybe he was just getting old. He just kind of wondered if Charlie might be trying to avoid something since she'd seemed to be able to keep herself from having any long conversations with any of them so far about what she had been up to lately. Dean just hoped it wasn't something that was going to come back and bite them in the ass.

But, at the same time, he was kind of glad to have someone with a little Christmas spirit. After all, it had been a while since they'd gotten to enjoy any holiday.

They spent the rest of the night decorating, wrapping presents to put under the little tree, and then crashing and watching Christmas movies after Charlie helped Sam hook the projector up to his laptop. They had popcorn and gingerbread cookies for their dinner while they did so and then finally, Dean called it a night.

"Okay, I know you're going to have us up at the crack of dawn so I'm gonna hit the sack," he said.

Charlie smiled and gave him a hug goodnight. "You bet, see you bright and early."

Dean rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Uh-huh."

"I think I'm gonna turn in too," Sam said, yawning. "Goodnight, Charlie."

They all shuffled off to bed, and Dean fell asleep pretty easily.

Of course, just as he had suspected, the other shoe dropped.

He wasn't sure what exactly woke him up, but his eyes just opened in the middle of the night, feeling some disturbance in the bunker. He looked at the clock and saw it was two a.m. surely not time for even Charlie to wake them up yet. It was barely Christmas.

He sighed but decided to get up, not liking to ignore his funny feelings when he got them just in case it turned out to be something bad.

He pulled his robe on in the cold bunker and padded out of his room toward the library, which was where he could hear a muffled sound coming from.

He thought at first Cas might be up, since he didn't really sleep, but usually the angel spent his nights watching Netflix in his room, and Dean saw the instant he came into the library that it wasn't Cas there anyway.

It was Charlie. And she was…crying?

Dean frowned and strode over to the couch she was sitting on.

"Charlie? Hey, are you all right?" he asked.

She swiftly rubbed her eyes and sniffed. "Oh, yeah, I'm great. I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"Hunter," Dean shrugged. He nodded to the couch. "Scoot."

Charlie sighed and did as he asked, curling up in one corner of the small couch. Dean sat down and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Talk to me. What's going on? I mean, tomorrow's Christmas, you love Christmas, right?"

Charlie sniffed again and rubbed the sleeve of her sweater over her eyes. "Yeah, but that's kind of the problem," she said.

"Okay…" Dean coaxed.

She sighed. "So, the last real Christmas I had was the one before my parents died in the car accident. It was like, the best Christmas ever, and we had an amazing time together. But every year after that, it's just been me, and maybe an office party back when I still had a real job, but nothing like when I was a kid and my parents were still alive. And I guess…I don't know, I just thought it would be nice to have Christmas again, now that I found you guys and I kinda have a family again, but it just…hurts."

Dean bit his lip as Charlie's shoulders shook with a sob again. Then he slid closer to her, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in against his chest.

"Come here," he said as she curled into him, and he settled his chin on the top of her head. "I'm sorry, kiddo."

They stayed like that for a while, before Charlie finally pulled away and wiped her eyes. "Sorry for being like this, I just didn't expect it to hit me that hard. That's why I was afraid to stop earlier."

Dean smirked. "Well, I can't promise this will be as awesome as the Christmases you had with your family, but we'll try to make it a good one."

Charlie smiled back. "Thanks, Dean."

"Now, why don't you go off to bed," Dean told her. "Try to get a little sleep at least. I need a couple more hours myself."

Charlie sighed and smiled. "Yeah, alright."

"Besides, Santa won't come."

"Hey, so is Santa real?" Charlie asked.

"That's one's still undetermined," Dean admitted.

Charlie grinned then and finally went back to her room.

Dean watched her go, and sighed as he sank back onto the couch. He had a couple ideas for the next day.

He woke Sam and grabbed Cas from his room earlier than expected, while he knew Charlie was still asleep, and ushered them silently into the kitchen where he had already started making coffee.

Sam was rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Dude, I thought you were the one who wanted to sleep in, what's going on?"

"What's going on, is we are going to give Charlie the best Christmas ever," Dean said and told them about the night before and the ideas he had come up with to cheer Charlie up.

Sam gave a sympathetic smile. "No problem, what do you need us to do?"

The next hour they spent gathering what they needed. Cas went on runs for them to grab a few extra things and by the time they had finished prepping, it was a more moderate time to be up, and Dean went to wake Charlie himself.

"Hey, kiddo," he said, standing by her bed as he shook her shoulder gently. "Wake up."

Charlie jolted upright, bleary-eyed, but glanced at Dean. "Whoa, did I oversleep? Is it Christmas?"

Dean grinned. "Yep. Come on."

Charlie clambered out of bed as Dean led her to the kitchen where Sam and Cas were waiting.

Charlie stopped as she saw them and couldn't help but smile.

"Merry Christmas!" the three men greeted her with. Sam and Cas were wearing Santa hats and the kitchen table was covered with mugs of steaming hot chocolate and stacks of pancakes.

"These are gingerbread pancakes," Dean explained to her, motioning her to the seat of honor. "I just kind of used the leftover ingredients from the cookies with a recipe I found online. Hope they turned out good."

"Ohmigosh, they smell amazing," Charlie exclaimed, already taking a bite.

Dean smiled at Sam and Cas as they joined her at the table and dug into their own breakfast. The pancakes actually were pretty good.

After that Charlie put her fork down. "Okay, you know what time it is, right?" she hinted.

Dean rolled his eyes. "No, not at all."

"Presents!" Charlie said, punching him in the arm. "Come on! Let's see what Santa left!"

They followed her into the library that Sam, Dean and Cas had decorated with even more lights and garlands. Charlie gasped as she saw it and the pile of presents under the little tree. Dean went over to the record player and put on an old Christmas record he had found.

"You guys!" Charlie exclaimed and then before they knew it, she was throwing her arms around them and pulling them into a group hug. "This is so nice. You didn't have to do all this for me!"

"Yeah, we did," Sam told her, squeezing her tightly. "We wanted you to have a nice Christmas."

"Well, I already am," Charlie said, then clapped her hands together. "But seriously, it's time for presents."

They all gathered around and pretty soon paper and ribbons were flying everywhere as they opened the gifts they had gotten each other.

Once everything was unwrapped. Charlie sighed contentedly and grinned at Sam, Dean and Cas in turn. "Thanks guys. This was the best Christmas I've had in years. I'm so glad I have you for my family."

"Me too, kiddo," Dean told her and bent to kiss the top of her head. "Merry Christmas, Charlie."


	19. Home For the Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie calls Cas to help her get ready for Christmas, but Cas doesn't realize they want him to celebrate with them.

Castiel arrived at the bunker after recieving a text from Charlie saying that she needed help. He was slightly anxious about what she had meant by that, after all, he hadn't even realized she had been staying at the bunker, and he had only met her once before so now he wondered if something had happened to Sam and Dean. She hadn't sounded really frantic, but at the same time, it was better to be safe than sorry.

However, when he showed up at the bunker, both Charlie and Kevin met him at the door with grins on their faces.

"Castiel, you came!" Charlie exclaimed and jumped forward to give him a swift hug.

"Yes…well, you said you needed my help," he said, wary, and unsure about what was going on now. He was still looking around the bunker for any signs of danger.

"Oh, don't worry," Kevin said, seeming to see his unease. "Nothing's wrong, Charlie and I just convinced Sam and Dean to have a Christmas this year."

"And we need all the help we can get to set it up!" Charlie informed him. "In fact, you, me and Kevin can go pick out a tree while Sam and Dean go to the grocery store for food."

"Okay," Castiel said, still a little unsure, but glad that there wasn't any danger. He was glad to help them out. The Winchesters deserved to have a nice holiday, as well as Kevin and Charlie. They'd all been putting in a lot of hours lately, after all.

"Great! We'll take my car," Charlie said and was already throwing on a coat and running out the door, Kevin close behind her. Castiel had to smile at their enthusiasm and followed as quickly as possible.

They drove into town to the tree lot and Castiel inhaled deeply of the heady balsam scent. He loved the smell of the forest and these trees smelled amazing.

"Ooh, there's so many to choose from!" Charlie said. "Kevin, what about that one over there?"

The two young people dashed around the trees as Castiel followed them, waiting to offer assistance if needed.

"Okay, this is definitely the one, what do you think?" Charlie asked them as she stood by a big, fluffy tree.

"Oh yeah, this is great!" Kevin said. "I think there might just be room for it in the library."

"If it will fit in the car," Castiel said doubtfully.

"Don't worry, they wrap them up and we can put it on the roof," Charlie told him and went to tell the man selling the trees that they were ready to make a purchase.

Castiel was the one who helped the tree man wrestle the huge tree into its netting and onto the top of Charlie's yellow car.

"Okay, now we need to stop and buy some decorations," Charlie said as she climbed into the driver's seat and started the car. "I'm sure Sam and Dean don't have Christmas lights lying around anywhere."

They drove to a grocery store and Charlie grabbed a basket, already taking off through the store toward the holiday section. Castiel wondered if she would ever slow down enough to actually enjoy the holiday.

"Ooh, look at these!" She said, pointing to some lights in the shape of snowflakes. "What do you think, Castiel? These or the colored lights?"

Castiel looked at the two. "I actually rather like the colored ones myself. They're very nice," he said decidedly. The snowflake ones didn't really look like actual snowflakes, after all.

Charlie nodded. "Agreed. Best stick with the classics."

"Does that mean we can't get the Star Wars themed ornament set?" Kevin asked.

Charlie sighed. "So torn."

In the end, they decided just to get red and green balls and candy canes to hang on the tree.

"Dean said we're going to make homemade pizza and apple pie tonight," Charlie said. "But I bet he didn't get anything for cookies and we need gingerbread men. I have a great recipe that's super easy. Let's pick up the ingredients for that too."

Castiel took charge of the ornaments while Charlie grabbed the things she would need for the cookies. It was a lot of work dodging the other last minute shoppers but they somehow still managed to get everything they needed and checked out, carrying several large bags out of the store.

"Okay, back to the bunker!" Charlie exclaimed.

They drove back and by then Sam and Dean had returned with the stuff for dinner, already unloading it in the kitchen.

"Hey, Cas," Sam greeted with a smile as the three of them entered with their bags. "Glad you came."

"Yeah, I could use some help in the kitchen," Dean said. "You wanna cut apples for the pie?"

"I already promised to help with the decorating first," Castiel told the hunter. "But after that I wouldn't mind helping with the pie."

"Yeah, and we need to get the tree inside," Kevin exclaimed.

"You got a tree?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrows.

Charlie crossed her arms. "Duh. I said we were decorating. We can't do that without a tree!"

Dean shrugged. "Okay."

"We're also making gingerbread men—and women of course," Charlie informed him, unloading her bag of ingredients.

"Well, not gonna argue with that," Dean grinned, looking eager.

"Come on, Cas, you and I can get the tree inside," Sam told him and they went out to wrestle the tree back off the roof of Charlie's car and inside the bunker, placing it in a corner of the library Charlie and Kevin had cleared before they cut the netting from it and fluffed it out again.

"It looks so nice!" Charlie exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Now it's time for decorating!"

Castiel set to work untangling the lights that were already a mess right out of their boxes. It was slightly annoying, but eventually between him and Kevin, they managed it. Then Charlie strung them around the tree, and plugged them in before they set about placing the ornaments and candy canes on the branches.

"I'll go help Dean in the kitchen now," Castiel told them.

"Great! We'll be in soon to start the cookies!"

Dean set Castiel to work as soon as he got into the kitchen, peeling and slicing apples as Dean attempted to make piecrust. It took several attempts but he finally got it to a consistency that seemed right and into the pan without it completely falling apart. Then they mixed up the apples with sugar and cinnamon before dumping it into the crust and covering it with another one on top.

"This is gonna be awesome," the hunter said with a satisfied smile as he crimped the edges and made slits in the top of the crust.

Castiel smiled too, glad to see his friends so happy. It had been a long time since they'd had the chance to simply enjoy themselves.

"Okay, guys, it's cookie time!"

Happy chaos ensued as Charlie handed out instructions for making the cookies. By the time the dough was mixed, flour was everywhere, on the floor, on everyone's clothes and hair, it was a complete mess, but they were all so happy when they got the cookies in the oven that no one minded the mess, even Dean who was usually angry when his kitchen was thrown into disarray.

Charlie was just mixing up some peppermint hot chocolate when Castiel finished sweeping up the flour on the floor.

"Is there anything else I can help with?" he asked.

"Not right now," Charlie said. "We'll make the pizza later when we're ready to watch some Christmas movies."

"Thanks for all the help, Cas," Kevin smiled.

Castiel felt a slight pang in his chest at what he took to be dismissal, but he smiled as he set the broom aside. "You're welcome. Well, if you're finished with needing my help, I suppose I should go and leave you to your celebration."

"Whoa, what?" Charlie exclaimed.

"Cas, you don't want to stay?" Dean asked him as he started to make his way out the door.

Castiel stopped, biting his lip. "Oh, I didn't realize I was invited."

Four pairs of blank eyes stared back at him.

"Of course you're invited, Cas," Sam said.

"Why do you think I called you in the first place, silly?" Charlie demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

Castiel shuffled awkwardly. "Oh, I just thought you needed my help getting ready."

"No, Cas, we wanted you here with us," Kevin told him with a smile.

"Yeah, man, holidays are for family," Dean said firmly, reaching out and clapping a hand on Castiel's shoulder. "You're family, Cas."

Castiel smiled at that, feeling a warmth start in his chest. "Well, then, I suppose I'll stay."

"Besides, you can't just run off without tasting my pie," Dean told him.

"Or my cookies," Charlie said. "That would make me sad."

Castiel cracked a smile. "Well, I definitely don't want that."

Charlie shoved a mug of hot chocolate into his hands. "Merry Christmas, Castiel," she told him.

Castiel smiled at his friends, his family, as they all raised their mugs. "Merry Christmas," he said in return.


	20. Merry and Bright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sequel to the previous one shot "Good Tidings" Sadie celebrates Christmas this year for the first time with Mary and Eileen.

"Uncle Dean, what are you doing?"

Dean looked down at Sadie from the step stool he was standing on, fixing one of the small sprigs of mistletoe he had to the top of the doorway.

He grinned down at the little girl. "Oh, just something for the decorations."

Cas appeared then and frowned up at the plant. "I didn't know it was tradition to place parasitic plants in the doorway on Christmas."

"Parasitic…" Dean glowered, getting off the stool. "Dude, you need to pay more attention to human traditions. The sole purpose of mistletoe is to catch two people under so that they have to kiss."

"Ew!" Sadie, who was at the age where the thought of kissing boys was extremely disgusting pulled a face. "Why do we have to do that tradition?"

Dean grinned mischievously. "Because, Uncle Sammy's girlfriend is coming over and I'm determined to get them to kiss."

"What are you up to?" Mary asked as she came into the library, looking relaxed in a cream sweater and jeans. She glanced up at the mistletoe and rolled her eyes. "Dean, I hope you're not doing that just to annoy your brother."

"Come on, Mom, I have to have a little fun," Dean said.

"Well, I don't want Eileen to be scared off before I get the chance to know her," Mary protested.

"She's not exactly scared of anything," Cas supplied. "Especially a parasitic areal plant."

"I love Aunt Eileen and you will too, Aunt Mary," Sadie said, throwing her arms around Mary in an impromptu hug. "Uncle Sam has been teaching me Sign Language and I can't wait to show her all the words I know now!"

"I'm sure she'll be impressed, you're very good," Mary told her with a smile, hugging her back. Sadie had taken to practicing all the time after she found out that Eileen would be joining them for the holidays. "The cookies should be cool enough now so why don't you come help me start decorating them?"

"Yay!" Sadie exclaimed and hurried off toward the kitchen.

Dean watched them go with a smile. He was so proud of how Sadie was growing up, and now with their Mom back, getting to share their adopted girl with her was even better. She may not actually be a grandchild, but it was probably the closest Mary would ever get to being a grandmother. It seemed to suit her well, and Dean thought it did good for Mary to have a young child around. It kind of helped the shock of having her own sons fully grown up.

Dean stepped away from the doorway and the inconspicuous sprig of mistletoe just as Sam entered the library.

"Hey, just got a text from Eileen, she's only about half an hour away, now," Sam told him, looking extremely happy. And Dean didn't blame him. He was happy for Sam. Sure, the two of them had been taking their time about really announcing their relationship, but it was so obvious. Dean knew he needed to work on it over the holiday.

"Good. In the meantime, Sadie will be wondering where we are. It's cookie decorating time."

The three of them went into the kitchen where the table was spread with cookies and the decorating materials. Sadie and Mary were already filling bags with colored icing for them and Sadie was squeezing some green out onto a Christmas tree shaped one.

"Come on, you guys have to help with the cookies!" she told her adopted uncles and of course the three of them couldn't say no.

They all sat down, laughing and happy, to help decorate the cookies, but before long there was a knock on the door and Sam stood up immediately, bumping the table with his hip.

Dean chuckled. "Whoa, easy there, tiger."

Sam shot him a bitch face, which soon dissipated as Sadie leapt up as well with a happy gasp. "Aunt Eileen is here!"

She and Sam went toward the door first and Dean and Cas followed with Mary hanging behind.

Dean watched happily as Sam opened the door and greeted Eileen with a hug as the female hunter stepped inside.

"Hey, great to see you," he told her, grinning, after pulling back.

"You too," she replied.

"Aunt Eileen!" Sadie exclaimed and threw her arms around the woman as well then started signing to her in greeting.

"You're getting so good," Eileen told her with a smile and then signed back slowly so Sadie could follow. The little girl giggled and said something else. Dean still couldn't follow much of it, but he was trying to get a little better himself. Especially if Eileen was going to be around more and going on hunts with them…which he was suspecting would be the case.

"Do you want to help decorate cookies?" Sadie asked her.

"I would love to," Eileen told her. "First I have to get some presents out of the car."

"I can help with that," Cas told her and went out to her car while Sam led Eileen down the stairs finally.

"Hey," Dean greeted, giving her a hug and then cleared his throat pointedly at Sam, and nodded toward Mary.

Sam took Eileen's shoulder to get her attention. "Eileen, this is our mom, Mary," he told her, motioning to Mary who was still standing a little behind Dean. Dean promptly moved to one side, wrapping one arm around Sadie as he watched the introduction.

"Hi," Mary said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, finally."

"You too," Eileen told her, reaching out a hand. "I've heard so much about you."

Mary bypassed her hand and pulled her into a hug instead. Sam and Dean shared a smile over the two women's heads, and Dean saw some relief pass through his brother. He'd known their mom would like Eileen instantly.

Cas appeared then with Eileen's bag and another one full of brightly wrapped presents. "I'll show you to your room, Eileen," he told her.

"If she needs her own," Dean murmured to himself. Mary heard him and slapped his shoulder with a glare, but Sam was oblivious, already following Cas and Eileen into the dormitory ward.

"Shush," Mary reproved him. "I told you to be nice to your brother."

"Come on, Mom, it's not like he's sixteen anymore. He's an adult, and he can take care of himself." Dean smirked and squeezed Sadie's shoulders again. "Hey, cupcake, what do you say we go finish those cookies? I'm sure Aunt Eileen will be in soon."

"Yay!" Sadie exclaimed and broke away from him, hurrying off into the kitchen. Mary smiled at Dean and he smiled back. He was thinking that this was officially the best Christmas ever.

Everyone sat down happily to finish decorating the cookies, and then they all gathered in the comfortable end of the library they had put together with couches and a flat screen and they ate their cookies and watched Christmas Story, one of Sadie's favorite Christmas movies. And then Home Alone.

By then, it was time for Sadie to go to bed. She huffed a bit, but went willingly enough, though Dean didn't think she would be sleeping all that much that night. She was way too excited from rattling all the presents under the tree and trying to guess what they might be.

And of course it was an early morning, so Dean tried to get as much sleep as possible.

He was woken by his door being ripped open and a small figure landing in his bed.

"Uncle Dean, wake up! It's Christmas!" Sadie exclaimed, shaking his shoulder.

"Urg," Dean moaned, rolling over.

"Don't worry, Uncle Cas already made coffee," Sadie coaxed.

Dean rubbed his eyes and smile. "You know me too well, kiddo."

Sadie grinned and grabbed his hand. "Come on!"

"I'm coming," he said, shuffling out of bed. "Go wake up Uncle Sam."

As Sadie went to wake up the rest of the bunker's occupants, Dean made his way into the kitchen where Cas was already pouring mugs of steaming coffee and one of hot cocoa for Sadie.

"Merry Christmas, Dean," Cas told him with a smile.

Dean groaned in relief as he took his first sip of coffee. "Mm, Merry Christmas, man."

He heard Sadie's feet running into the library then and smiled. "I guess we better get in there before she starts without us."

Cas loaded up the drinks on a tray and carried it out to the coffee table as Sam, Mary and Eileen also gathered around. Sam and Eileen took the couch together so Dean sat in the chair closest to the Christmas tree and Sadie who was already scrambling for the festive gifts underneath.

"Uncle Dean, look at all the presents!" she exclaimed.

He grinned and mussed her hair fondly. "Yep, there's a bunch. Which one are you gonna start with?"

Paper flew everywhere, accompanied by Sadie's exclamations of happiness as she uncovered all of her gifts from her doting adoptive family, while the adults drank coffee and woke up, enjoying the observation of the happy child.

Dean eventually got up to move everyone into the kitchen where he was going to make pancakes and Sadie leapt up and hugged everyone in turn.

"Thanks for all the presents!" she told them.

"You're welcome, sweetie," Dean told her with a grin, bending to kiss the top of her head.

"Did you get everything you wanted?" Sam asked, stopping with Eileen close to his side as he turned back to the little girl.

"Yes and more!" Sadie exclaimed.

"So did I!" Dean couldn't help but grin as he saw where Sam and Eileen stood. "Because you two got caught in my trap! Look up."

Sam frowned and looked up, rolling his eyes as he saw the mistletoe and Dean swore he saw his little brother's cheeks turn a shade of red. "Dean…"

"Dude, come on, just kiss already! The tension is killing me."

"Dean," Mary and Cas said at the same time in a longsuffering way.

But it was Eileen who grinned and simply grabbed the front of Sam's robe and pulled him downward, pressing her lips to his. Sam froze like a moose in the headlights and Dean whooped.

"Finally!"

"Agreed," Eileen said and wrapped an arm around Sam's waist as she smiled up at him.

Dean wrapped his arm around Mom's shoulders, grinning like an idiot. "There we go."

"I see you're happy," Mary said with a slight smirk.

"Come on, you have to admit they look good together."

"I'm not arguing with that," Mary said, leaning her head against her eldest son's shoulder.

Sadie looked up at the mistletoe warily. "Does it have to make you kiss?"

Sam grinned, finally, losing a little blush. "No, kiddo, it's just a silly thing."

"Oh, okay," Sadie said, but looked up at Cas who was standing next to her in the doorway on their way to the kitchen and beckoned him to bend down where she kissed his cheek. "I don't mind giving Uncle Cas a kiss though. He's an angel, so he doesn't have cooties."

Everyone laughed but Cas, who obviously wasn't sure what a 'cootie' was. But he did smile at Sadie all the same.

"Come on, it's time for pancakes," Dean told everyone and they all trooped into the kitchen.

"With whipped cream?" Sadie asked.

"With whipped cream," Dean promised.

The Winchesters and their extended family sat down to a happy Christmas morning breakfast and Dean once again decided that this definitely had to be the best Christmas ever.


	21. Christmas Spirits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Christmas Case fic. The boys investigate a series of strange accidents and present thefts.  
> (Note: This is set in the same universe as my series "A Thing or Two About Being Human" so there's human!Cas and some references to that series.)

Castiel stood looking up at the roof of the house as Sam and Dean asked the wife of the unfortunate man who had fallen off of it questions about the accident. Of course, it could have just been from the snow, but with all the other things that had been going on in town, Castiel wasn't so sure it was that simple. That was why they were there after all.

"And you said the string of lights exploded before your husband fell off the roof?" Sam was asking as Castiel went back to join them. He glanced back at the roof, seeing the scorch marks on the eves where the ruined Christmas lights still hung.

"Yes," the woman said, running a hand tiredly over her face. "At least that's what I assumed. I was in the kitchen at the time. I just saw the burst of light and sparks and heard Tom fall off the roof." She hugged herself in the chill air. "Look, I really need to get to the hospital to look after my husband."

"No problem, I think you told us everything we need to know," Dean assured her as she gratefully turned back inside.

"Well, what are you thinking?" Dean asked as he turned to Sam and Cas.

Sam's brow furrowed. "Well, I want to say ghost, with the instances of exploding lights, but that's not the only thing that's happened."

"Yes, there were the thefts too," Castiel stated. "And that is a bit strange for ghosts, usually, isn't it?"

They had first come across the case because of several reports in this small town in upstate Missouri where Christmas lights had exploded at random, sometimes, causing people to fall off roofs when putting them on the outside of the house, and a couple causing fires inside. But once they had gotten to the town and done some investigating, they had found out that there was more to it than that. Some of the houses had been robbed, Christmas presents disappearing from under the trees, and decorations smashed.

"A ghost that really hates Christmas?" Dean shrugged. "It could happen, I guess."

"I just hope we figure it out soon," Sam said. "It's three days to Christmas and the town is getting anxious to find out what's going on."

"Well, I'm gonna head to the local police station and look through all the reports that they have on file," Dean said. "Why don't I drop you and Cas back at the motel and you can look into any history or deaths around this time of year that might cause the ghost of Christmas past to swear vengeance."

"Sounds good," Sam said and the three of them headed to the Impala.

Cas pulled his coat closer around himself. He was still adjusting to the cold weather being human now, and it was colder here than it was back in Lebanon, plus he had kind of been looking forward to sharing Christmas with the Winchesters that year. But duty called, and a hunter's job was never done. He just hoped that Trouble wasn't getting too lonely back at the bunker by himself.

Dean dropped them off at the motel and Castiel and Sam took out their laptops and began to research.

Several hours later, Dean returned with food and a lift of all the victims that had gotten on the bad side of whatever they were dealing with.

"What did you find out?" Sam asked him.

Dean sat down at the table and handed out boxes of Chinese take out. "Well, I looked through every report filed from the thefts to the accidents to the fires and so far the good thing is that there haven't been any deaths, just injuries and property damage, but as you know, when angry spirits really start to get going things can escalate quickly."

"But were there any patterns?" Castiel asked.

Dean shrugged. "Not that I could see. Though obviously, all of the victims were going all out for Christmas. Lights, decorations, the whole nine."

"So maybe we have a Scrooge on our hands," Sam suggested, clicking through some of the windows he had open on his laptop. "Someone who just plain hates Christmas."

"Or a Grinch," Dean said. "What about you, you find anything."

"Yeah, a few things, actually," Sam said, and turned his computer around to show Dean one of the articles he and Castiel had found. "About ten years back, a man, Rupert Clancy, was killed on Christmas Eve in a car crash on his way home from a business trip. His car was full of presents for his kids. The accident didn't happen too far from here."

Dean shrugged. "Yeah, but if it were him, don't you think he'd be out there causing accidents? Usually ghosts get revenge by doing the same thing that was done to them."

"True," Sam said.

"We also found this woman," Castiel said. "Susan Whitmark. Apparently when still alive, she would always make a big fuss about any kind of neighborhood disturbance, especially around Christmas time, when she thought all the decorations people put up in their yard were 'garish'. I found several of the complaints she filed to the homeowners' association on record, but I don't think anyone did anything about them. Ironically she died on Christmas back in 1995."

"I suppose her complaints could have come from a general dislike of Christmas due to something that may have happened in her childhood," Sam offered.

"She sounds like a better candidate," Dean mused. "It say where she's buried?"

"Yes," Castiel said. "In a graveyard only a few miles from here."

"Well, I guess we're gonna do a little wassailing later," Dean said.

~~~~~~~

Later that night, they went to the graveyard with their shovels, salt and lighter fluid, and dug up Susan Whitmark's grave to burn her bones.

"How's that for the Christmas spirit?" Dean muttered wryly.

Castiel shook his head. It was never a pleasant thing to burn someone's bones, even if it did help to keep people safe."

"With any luck, she was the source of our problem and we can head out in the morning," Sam said as they refilled the grave and headed back to the Impala in the chill night air.

Unfortunately, as they were driving back to the motel, the sound of sirens blared and they could see red and blue flashing lights up ahead heading toward one of the housing developments.

"Crap," Dean muttered. "You think it's just a coincidence?"

"Better to be safe than sorry," Sam said.

Dean sighed and turned down the street, parking behind the police cars. The three of them got out, Castiel remembering to grab his fake FBI credentials from his coat before he joined Sam and Dean on the lawn.

"Agents," one of the policemen said, looking harried. "Glad you came so quickly. Looks like we got another disturbance."

"What happened this time?" Sam asked.

"Well, the call was a little confused, but it sounds like another theft. At least there weren't any injuries this time."

The three hunters followed the detective into the house where a man and woman sat on the couch, a little girl between them as one of the deputies stood in front of them, asking questions.

Castiel looked around and saw that the living room was a mess. The tree had been tipped over, glass from the broken ornaments crunched under his shoes and the few presents that were left had been crushed and thrown everywhere.

"I told you what I saw!" the little girl said insistently. "It was an invisible boy!"

Castiel, Sam and Dean all shared a look and Sam stepped toward the deputy, clearing his throat. "Do you mind if we question them a little?"

The deputy was about to protest, but the police detective who had followed the Winchesters in nodded toward the door. "Let them take over here, Fisher. We'll secure the perimeter and see if the culprit is still lurking around."

Once the police left, Sam turned back to the family and smiled, holding up his badge. "I'm Agent Young, these are Agents Johnson and Evans. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"

"There was an invisible boy!" the little girl insisted again.

"Rachel, shush," her mother said, looking lost, and still wearing her robe and sleep clothes. "I'm sorry, she doesn't know what she saw."

"Actually, would you mind if my partner and I talked to your daughter alone?" Sam asked, motioning to Castiel. "If you daughter thinks she saw something, we would like to know, no matter how unlikely it sounds."

Rachel's mom and dad looked at each other and then gave in. "All right, I suppose."

Sam smiled and held out a hand for Rachel. "Hey, Rachel, my name is Sam and this is Cas, why don't we go talk in the kitchen while our partner talks to your mom and dad?"

Rachel nodded and got off the couch to follow them into the kitchen. She sat on a stool at the counter and Sam and Castiel took seats on the other side.

"So, Rachel, what exactly did you see?" Sam asked her.

"I was asleep in my room," the little girl said. "Then I heard something down here. Like something moving around. I thought that maybe Santa had come early and I wanted to see if he brought me anything. But when I came downstairs the Christmas tree was knocked over and that boy was taking my presents!"

"And you said the boy was invisible?" Castiel asked her.

She nodded her head.

"Rachel, why would you say that?" Sam asked. "If he was invisible, how did you know it was a boy?"

"Because I could see him," Rachel insisted. "But I could also see through him. And after he shoved all the presents into a bag, he disappeared!"

"You don't think he just went out the door or window?" Sam asked, though shared a knowing look with Cas.

"No," Rachel said firmly. "I know he didn't because after he disappeared I tried to go to the door to chase after him but it was locked, and then I thought the window was open because it was really cold in here but when I went to check, it wasn't."

"How old was the boy?" Castiel asked her. "What did he look like?"

Rachel scrunched up her face. "Well, he was maybe a little older than me, like the fourth-graders at school. And he wore dirty clothes."

"Well, thank you Rachel, you've been a big help," Sam told her and stood up as Rachel hopped down from her stool.

"Are you going to get my presents back?" she asked, looking sad.

"We'll do our best," Sam assured her.

They met Dean in the foyer and handed the crime scene back over to the police. "Well?" Dean asked as they stepped back outside.

"It's definitely a ghost," Sam said. "She described a see-through boy who disappeared and left the room cold."

"Unfortunately, we didn't find any young boys in the obituaries," Castiel said.

"Well, plan B I guess," Dean said, as he opened the driver's side door and climbed into the Impala. "Back to research."

~~~~~~~

A couple more hours back at the motel and a pot of coffee later, Sam was finally triumphant.

"Hey, I think I found something," he said, turning the computer around toward Dean and Castiel as well. "I was looking into major events from the town going back several decades, and I think I found our culprit, or culprits," Sam said and turned the computer back around so he could read the article he had found. "So, get this; there's an old orphanage in town, and I guess back in the day it wasn't much better than the one in Oliver Twist. Apparently one year, several kids were locked up in the basement as a punishment, not allowed the attend the Christmas dinner, and when most of the staff went home for the holidays, including the abusive headmaster who ordered their punishment, they died of exposure from the cold and hunger."

"Wow, merry Christmas," Dean muttered.

Castiel frowned, never liking to hear about children suffering.

"And what's more, is that this year marks the fifty year anniversary of their deaths," Sam said.

"Which usually causes all kinds of trouble," Dean agreed. "So, you got angry orphan kids who couldn't take part in Christmas, instead left to freeze and starve to death, so now they're determined to ruin it for everyone else too. Yeah, that sounds about right."

"Is the orphanage still there?" Castiel asked.

Sam nodded. "Yes, only now it's a children's hospital and obviously is under new management. Apparently the orphanage was disbanded after the headmaster died—oddly only about a year after the incident with the kids." He clicked through several more websites. "Oh, crap. It looks like they're holding a yearly Christmas party for the kids tomorrow night on Christmas Eve. How much you wanna bet that the bitter ghost kids are going to make an appearance?"

Dean snorted. "No way they're gonna pass up the chance. Well, let's sleep on it tonight and see what we can do tomorrow."

~~~~~~~

The three hunters stood outside the newly revamped orphanage the next night. Sam had called earlier, under the guise of their FBI personas and told the proprietors that with all the vandalism going on, they wanted to make sure everyone was safe for the party. So they went in plain clothes.

"We'll just wander around and keep an eye out for anything suspicious," Dean assured one of the head doctors who had met them at the door.

"Are you sure it's safe for the party to go on?" she asked.

"Oh, don't worry, let the kids have their fun," Sam said with a reassuring smile. "We're really just here for precautions."

"Well, okay, as long as you're sure," she said.

Once they were left to their own devices, Dean nodded to Sam and Cas. "I'll stay up here and keep an eye on the party. You and Cas go check out the basement."

Sam snorted. "Dude, are you just staying up here to eat the snacks?"

"No," Dean replied defensively, if not a little sheepishly.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Just call if you need help."

"Same to you," Dean said and they parted ways.

Castiel and Sam found a stairwell and took it down to the lowest floor of the building. They held iron crowbars that they had taken out of their bags. They had their shot guns too, but didn't want to use them unless they had to, not wanting to startle the kids celebrating up above.

The new, inviting décor of the building disappeared as they went to the lower floors. In fact, down here, nothing looked like it had changed since the place had been a poorly run orphanage. Not to mention the fact that it was only getting colder the further they went.

Castiel zipped his jacket up, and could see his breath puff into a cloud in front of him. Then in front of them, down the stairs, he saw a shadow slip across the landing.

"Sam," he said.

"I saw it," Sam said. "I think we're almost there."

"What are we going to do when we find them?" Castiel asked. "Since the bodies were cremated we'll have to find the source."

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "I guess we'll know it when we find it."

"Should we call Dean?" Cas asked, as he heard the sound of faraway voices below.

Sam nodded again. "Probably a good idea."

But as Cas pulled out his phone to tell Dean they were close, he got that feeling of goosebumps up his spine and the hair stood up on the back of his neck. Sam seemed to feel something too, because he spun around and his eyes widened as he looked behind Cas.

"Cas, watch out!" he cried.

Castiel turned, just in time to be hit in the side of the head with a plank of wood, wielded by a ghostly child. He crashed sideways into Sam and the two of them tumbled helplessly down the stairs until Castiel's vision went completely black, thankfully before he hit the bottom.

~~~~~~~

Castiel started awake with the feeling of ice-cold hands yanking on a fistful of his hair. He groaned and lifted an aching head.

"Wake up!" said a young voice. "It's Christmas!"

Castiel blinked his eyes clear, his head pounding as he shuffled to sit up and look around. He heard Sam groan next to him and glanced over to see the younger Winchester propping himself up against the wall. He had a bleeding bump on one side of his head, but otherwise, he looked okay.

The whole basement was covered in presents, likely the ones pilfered from under the trees of the vandalized houses. There were also some sorry strings of Christmas lights hung awkwardly around the small space, giving the place a garishly festive look.

In the middle of all of it, stood three figures, two boys and a girl, about ten-to twelve years of age.

"What do you want?" Sam asked them, trying to keep his voice reasonable.

"We want to have a Christmas this year," one of the boys said. "They left us down here to starve. We were so hungry."

"And so cold," the little girl added, hugging her arms around herself.

"And the headmaster was an evil man," the first little boy spat viciously. "He always beat us, and he left us down here."

Castiel sat up straighter. "That wasn't nice of him to do," he said. "But that doesn't mean that you should ruin Christmas for the other children."

"Why should they have a nice holiday when we can't?" the first boy, who seemed to be the leader of the trio, asked. "How is that fair? We are only taking what we deserve!"

"But you're hurting people," Sam said. "You knocked people off of roofs and started fires. People could have died."

"We did," said the second little boy so grimly it caused a chill to go down Castiel's spine.

"We know," the ex-angel said, holding out his hands. "But you can help us make things right now."

"No we won't!" the first boy said. "Every year we relive it. Just like when he put us in here the first time! This is the first year we've been able to leave, been strong enough to do anything! All we had was one candle and it didn't last the night!"

Sam glanced over to a corner of the room where a candleholder sat, old and rusted. He shared a glance with Castiel. That had to be it, the object that was closest to the children when they died, the object that had witnessed the extent of their suffering, probably they took turns clutching it in their freezing hands until it guttered out. Castiel felt sick, thinking of the young lives that had been lost and at a time of year when Children were supposed to be safe, and warm, filled with love and joy.

"What happened to you wasn't right," he said. "But you can't hurt more people because of what happened to you. I know you don't want that, and it won't make what happened to you better."

"How can we help you?" Sam asked them.

"We want a Christmas," the boy said. "And one of you will be Santa."

"Okay," Sam said reasonably with a nod.

"We want to go to the party," the little girl stated and the boys nodded in agreement.

Sam shared a look with Castiel and the ex-angel nodded. "Okay, we'll take you to the party. You just have to come with us, okay?"

The ghosts of the children looked at each other and nodded. One pulled an old Santa coat and hat out of a pile and handed it to Sam. "Be Santa," the second boy said firmly.

Sam stood and took the outfit, shrugging it on. Castiel inched toward the candleholder while the children were distracted, hoping to grab it.

"Okay," Sam told them, now dressed in the ragged suit and held out his hands, motioning toward the stairs. "Let's go to the party."

But just then, a rush of freezing air washed through the room, and the Christmas lights guttered and snapped, several popping.

Castiel made a dive for the forgotten crowbar and snatched it up just as another ghostly figure appeared. This one was an angry old man, with a cruel twist of his lip. The children instantly cowered away from him, huddling together.

"There will be no party for you," the new ghost said, and Castiel didn't have to guess who this was. The headmaster. Perhaps that was why the Children had been forced to relive their horrifying death each year. The ghost of their old headmaster was keeping them captive.

"You've been very naughty, running away every night," the man's ghost spat. "I aught to teach you a lesson."

Cas leapt forward and swung the crowbar at the ghost, dispersing it instantly into the ether.

"He's back," the children whimpered.

Sam tore off the Santa outfit and hurried to his bag, which the kids seemed to have dumped unceremoniously at the end of the stairs when Sam and Cas fell. He grabbed his shotgun out of there just as Cas saw the headmaster's ghost rematerialize.

"Sam!" he cried, and the hunter whipped around, bringing up the shotgun, only to have it ripped from his grasp as the ghost threw him across the room, where Sam crashed into a pile of rotted wood.

Castiel lunged forward but the ghost turned to him as well now, and before he could move, the string of lights above him, whipped downward and wrapped around his throat, hauling him off of his feet. Castiel dropped the crowbar to grab at the cord, choking helplessly as it only tightened.

The ghost of the headmaster grinned wickedly at Castiel and strode back to the children.

"Now you'll be punished," he said.

But the boy who led the others stood up straight and drew his shoulders back. "No! You'll be punished!"

Castiel watched through his blackening gaze as the three children surged toward the ghost of the headmaster and all grabbed him at once. Castiel wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but somehow the children seemed to be ripping him apart. The headmaster's spirit screamed before it disintegrated into nothing.

Castiel gasped in a breath as the wires instantly released him and he collapsed onto the floor, coughing and trying to draw air back into his lungs.

Sam grunted and crawled out of the pile of wood, eyes wide at what he had seen.

Feet pounded down the stairs, followed by Dean's frantic voice.

"Sam! Cas!"

He stopped as he came across the scene.

All three children stood, glowing, in light colored clothing. No longer dirty and haggard looking. They held hands and smiled.

"We're finally free of him," the little girl said.

"You can give the other children back their presents now," the boy told the hunters. "We're sorry."

Castiel smiled, despite still having a bit of trouble breathing. "Be at peace," he whispered to them. "Merry Christmas."

The children smiled again and then dispersed into the bright white flashes, of souls ascending to Heaven.

Once the scene ended, Dean was back to business, rushing toward Cas and Sam.

"Hey, you guys all right?" he asked, reaching out for Cas and helping him to his feet, peering at his throat, which Castiel was sure had bruises on it, then turning to Sam and taking stock of any injuries his brother might have had as well.

"I think we're okay, just a few bruises," Sam said with a wince, touching his head. "Maybe a concussion or two."

Castiel took in Dean's appearance for the first time and frowned. "What happened to you?"

Dean looked down at himself with a grunt. He was covered in what looked like cake frosting, and one sleeve was soaked in something sticky and red that looked like fruit punch.

"Yeah, not long before I came down here, all hell broke loose up at the party. Stuff started going full Poltergeist, shooting off the tables and crap was flying everywhere. It was a disaster." He shook his head. "That was one angry spirit, not to mention a dickbag. No wonder the kids were acting out."

"Well, at least they're at peace now," Castiel said.

"Yeah," Sam agreed with a somewhat relieved smile. "And we found all the presents that were stolen."

"So I guess that means we play Santa, right?" Dean asked blandly.

"It is Christmas Eve," Sam said.

Dean sighed. "Alright. Let's get this show on the road then."

They loaded all the presents up into the Impala and drove through the neighborhoods that had been vandalized, matching the names on the presents with the police reports as well as they could. It was late at night by the time they had finished, and started on the long drive back to Lebanon.

"I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to relaxing the next couple days," Dean said.

"Yeah, same here," Sam said.

Cas had to agree.

They got back to the bunker in the early hours of the morning, and the three weary hunters trooped inside.

Trouble greeted Cas as the ex-angel came in and he bent to pick up the cat who purred in contentment.

"Hey, what do you say we have some of that eggnog you bought the other day?" Sam suggested.

Dean had to smile. "Sure, but we're doing it right. We deserve it." He reached for a bottle of whisky and Sam poured three glasses as Cas gave Trouble a saucer of milk so he wouldn't feel left out.

"To a job well done," Dean said, holding up his glass toward the others as they all took their eggnog from the table.

"And Merry Christmas," Castiel added with a smile.

"Merry Christmas," Sam and Dean both echoed, smiling as well.

Castiel drank the eggnog, warmed by the whisky and also the feeling of contentment that he got to share this joyful holiday with the people he cared about most. His family.

He and the Winchesters retired to the library to watch a movie, and drink their eggnog, and Cas sat back on the couch with Trouble dozing, warm and soft in his lap, and he felt like he could never be happier than he was at this moment.

This, he decided, was what Christmas was supposed to be like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone has a lovely holiday! Merry Christmas :)


End file.
